Bad Temp Gauge?

[Ryan King]

Does anyone here know the cause of a bad temp gauge? Bad sensor? Im in the dark on this one.... 19702

[DeLorean03]

Mine used to do that. A couple months later, we ended up replacing the temperature gauge.

Not saying you'll have to do that, but that ended up being the course of action taken on my car. Maybe some other people would have ideas, as I am still learning about this area of the car :reading:.

[DMC5180]

Does anyone here know the cause of a bad temp gauge? Bad sensor? Im in the dark on this one.... 19702

Mine did that this spring when I first went to start it for the season. It had not had power applied to the gauge for about 4 months. If the Sender wire gets shorted to ground, it will cause the to needle point straight DOWN. If the wire Loses ground through the sender (goes Open) it will point straight UP. Mine Corrected itself after I Cleaned ALL the PCB contact points on the back of the cluster. Loosen and re-secure the nuts that hold the Instruments in place.

[OverlandMan]

I had the same problem as the OP described. I couldn't make it move regardless of the sender connectivity to ground or none. I ended up taking a paper clip and shoving it through the trip reset needle opening and carefully wiggled it over to where I could slightly bump/touch the Temp needle. Doing this it returned to the original position and functioned flawlessly since then. That was sometime late last summer.

[sdg3205]

Ryan,

I had a number of posts in a temp gauge thread with some great trouble shooting info. I'll see if I can find it.

[Ryan King]

Ryan,

I had a number of posts in a temp gauge thread with some great trouble shooting info. I'll see if I can find it.

Let me know if you can dig it up

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I was really worried about it being a bad gauge. I think Carb Bill said replacing the nuts on the back of the cluster with solid brass nuts which, according to him, made a better connection. Maybe this is why my Volt gauge moves around so much.

[sdg3205]

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?t=5811

The thread has voltage values for testing.

[Conundrum]

Mine has never gone above the line past 100 since I bought the car. I still don't know what's wrong with it. Never really worried about it.

[Ryan King]

I did the simplest of all the fixes tonight. Bumped the Needle with a Paper Clip. That *seemed* to work for now. But we will see how it is in the morning. I wonder if the gauge is acting up due to the 110 degree heat in Fresno of late.

[DMC5180]

Mine has never gone above the line past 100 since I bought the car. I still don't know what's wrong with it. Never really worried about it.

Perhaps someone forgot to install the thermostat in the water pump housing or it's failed OPEN. That would be a typical thing you would see. I assume, however, the Otterstat does kick the fans on when sitting at traffic lights. (not running A/C) meaning the engine is getting fully up to temp and your just not seeing it on the gauge.

Surely when DMCMW did your Stage II package. It was working then. Or was that a Stage II crate motor from DMCH back then.

[sdg3205]

My car had no thermostat when I got it. That's distinctly possible.

[Ryan King]

So two days later the temp gauge is working still after bumping it with a paper clip. Worked great today. I will keep an eye on it just in case.

[Conundrum]

Perhaps someone forgot to install the thermostat in the water pump housing or it's failed OPEN. That would be a typical thing you would see. I assume, however, the Otterstat does kick the fans on when sitting at traffic lights. (not running A/C) meaning the engine is getting fully up to temp and your just not seeing it on the gauge.

Surely when DMCMW did your Stage II package. It was working then. Or was that a Stage II crate motor from DMCH back then.

It wasn't even working when up at DMCMW. The fans do come on and everything with the cooling system runs fine, except the gauge.

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