Guys,
Just got my 73 home today and I could not get the oil temps gauge to work. The pressure on the other side of the combo-gauge is fine. The temps needle stays dead, even when I ground the wire at the sender's end. Not too sure if it is the sender, the wire or the gauge... I tried to go at this with the wiring diagram but the colors behind the gauge do not match the charts... any advice on figuring out which party might be guilty ? Thanks !
Greg.
Greg,
I don't have the schematic in front of me, but if you could figure out which wire is hot; you could ground the other terminal near the gauge (eliminating the wire to the rear). Likewise for the hot one, just disconnect existing wires and run a separate wire to the bat. You are on the right track with "process of elimination." I don't think I have ever seen a bad gauge, so my guess the problem lies in an area where the weather can do its job.
Alex
Leaf green 72T, SOLD!
Gone back to my MoPar roots!
The problem was multiple... I got a new gauge but that did not work either so now I have a spare ;-) The wiring was turkeyfied to the extent that I wonder how any of it worked at all... Once the correct wires were plugged in the correct spots, it still did not work, so I got a replacement sender which looked much shorter than original but... worked !!
Also what threw me is that when your turn the ignition on, the pressure side of the gauge jumps from rest to zero, but the temps side stays put. So unless you go for a long drive after each mod, you'll never know when you fixed it ;-)
You might want to consider checking the calibration of your gauge as in my experience there are several different sender/gauge combinations. I take out the sender and extend the wire from the gauge so I can dip it in a kettle of boiling water with another wire wrapped around the sender going back to ground on the car, switch on the ignition and your gauge will indicate exactly where 100c / 212f is.
No way I am pulling this out again to measure calibration, gotta wait till the skin on the back of my hands grows back !
I have a nice IR temps gun which I shot at the car (oil filter canister, temps sender itself) and it's in the ball park +/- 5F all the way to 210F, and I will check hotter temps when I can but I have the car in the body shop right now for a little rust repair ! ;-)
Those guns are sooo cool !
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