Temp Gage Check

[bucksnort1]

After using my TC45D for many hours this weekend, I noticed that the termp gage never budged off the cold side peg. I read in one of the forums that you could check the gage by shorting the sensor lead to ground and the gage should respond to the hot position. I did this and again the gage did not budge. Is this a sure indicator of a bad gage or is there some other test I should do before shelling out $50-60 bucks for a new gage? Thanks!

 

[JC-jetro]

there are different type of heat sensor but for most application the resistance of sensing element changes as it heats up. As the sender gets hooter it's resistance get smaller reason why you short it out (zero resistance, Ohms) to check the needle on the gauge. All gauges have a resting place (normally on Cold). on my 1700 resting place when engine is off is on hot, as soon as I turn the ignition is on it jumps to cold. that is very important as it gives me visual feed back the wiring is okay and hooked up,as the engine warms up the needle creep up toward hot.

In your case you need to make sure you have no break from the sender to the gauge. secondly you should test your temp sending unit by measuring the resistance using on volt/ohm meter and compare it with the spec for your sender. For example on mine the cold engine resistance is 700 ohms and goes down to 140 at operating temp.

jc,

 

[jinman]

Is this a sure indicator of a bad gage or is there some other test I should do before shelling out $50-60 bucks for a new gage? Thanks!

It's about as sure as you can get. Read this thread for help. Be sure and read the whole thread because I put out some bogus info in the beginning.

 

[barbqranch]

The gauge also needs plus 12 volts to it. Most likely it is a bad gauge, but there are possible situations where there wouldn't be power so it wouldn't read.

 

[Dirtball]

could be bad thermastat