longlive289s

so my temp sensor when bat **** insane couple days ago going home. picked up a new probe and a new gauge that actually should give me a more accurate reading and fits where the old gauge does.

so unhook it all, pull the cluster apart, throw the new gauge in (after some slight tweaking to fit). hooked it all back up (yes, i made sure to sticky every damn wire to know where they all went) and i got diddly from every cluster gauge...even the new one.

i know the fuel has two wires, oil has two (and wires that hook to a sort of resistor or unit that has two electrical connections, male and female), a ground wire above that, the speedo cable, and 2 wires for the amp gauge. the new temp is just one wire that i just hooked directly to the temp probe on the intake manifold.

so what the heck did i miss? how is it that my new gauge isnt working as well?

oh and the last bit of fun news.....Sunday is the big mustang show of course

JMD

Check the supply side of the guages, you my have inadvertently shorted a wire and blew a fuse or the instrument voltage drop. (did you even breiflt turn on the key with the dash apart?)

Both sides of the amp guage (12V) and one side of the rest of the guages (8V+/-) should be hot with the key on.

I am betting you lost your power.

longlive289s

ya it is looking like they dont have power. if i was smart i would have just pulled the batt cord lol. guess ill just have to steal my voltmeter from work and dig around in there. this fiasco is making me want to skip the show, rip all the wires out, order a new harness and wire it all up cleanly. freakin jungle behind the dash

JMD

Might check the fuses, I can't remember if the gauge fuse is in the box or if it is inline?

I am betting a 5 amp fuse is toast.

The regulator should be tough enough to take a brief short on a fused circuit.

And, yea, the stock wiring on the old Mu stags is kind of cheezy and "rat nesty" right from the get go. Wiring was not a big priority on a dollar a pound car...

longlive289s

so how come the new gauge isn't working? It came with it's own bulb which i just tossed aside for now. their is one copper wire that was connected to a, what im guessing is a simple drop-in-radiator probe, so i just snipped the wire and wired it straight to the probe on the intake manifold. what gives with that not working?

kalli

check fuses, then turn on the ignition, disconnect the wire from the tempsensor (the single one) and hold it to ground. if the gauge peaks the sensor is toast. if it doesn't it's the wiring or gauge. i'd nthen start with what JMD says check the supply wire to the gauge

JMD

So was the gauge a stock guage or something else?

I am confused about the "drop in probe".

Different style guages can be (and often are) sender specific.

The circuit usually works by having the input wire hooked to +, and the sender providing a variable ground (depending on temperature) to make the guage sweep in relation to the quality of the ground provided by the sender.

Senders and guages are matched to one another based on their relative range of resistance.

Tomahawk715

When you put the new "probe" in the engine you didnt do something like put teflon tape or pipe dope on it did you??

Someone had done that on a CJ7 I bought with an AMC 360---teflon tape--the sensor (probe) gets its ground from the motor and wont work if its insulated from that ground. Didnt notice it until I took the sensor out thinking it was bad--took tape off-put it back in and presto