one more comment...a friend said that I shouldn't worry whether that gauge works or not ...as the ECU will generate the overtemp indicator based on the other temperature sensor...so I would still know if it overheats ...is that true or does the overtemp indicator based on the sender/gauge ?

 

When the sender wire is grounded, the gauge should go all the way to hot when you turn the key on. With the wire open it should stay down below cold. So it sounds like it is bad. Used clusters are relatively easy to find and you can swap out the temperature / fuel gauge part and keep the rest of your cluster.

The gauge system is completely independent from the ECU so you can use an aftermarket gauge.

What your friend said is not true. The ECU will let the engine run until it burns up. The only indication you have is the dashboard gauge.

 

Soooo... after getting a cluster from a junk yard and replacing it the needle only went 1/4 way up ... blankety blank
After a LOT of debug what I found was that grounding the sender wire to the valve cover did NOT ground the wire....when I finally took the sender wire and jumpered it to the battery - blam the needle pegged to HOT. So in the end it was not the gauge.

So my next question .... is ....I measure 160 ohms between the battery negative and the valve cover ...where I "grounded" sender ...is that a problem ? The engine near the sender has a good ground ....its just the valve cover that doesn't ...there is a wire going from car frame to valve cover but I think there is a gasket in between thus the poor connection.

Next I measured the resistance of the sender as the engine ran.

Temp Book Resist MyResistance
133F 142 77
185F 49 20
212 32 10

With these readings...shouldn't my gauge read hotter not cooler ? Or am I mixed up ....should I replace ?
thanks

 

Soooo... after getting a cluster from a junk yard and replacing it the needle only went 1/4 way up ... blankety blank
After a LOT of debug what I found was that grounding the sender wire to the block did NOT ground the wire....when I finally took the sender wire and jumpered it to the battery - blam the needle pegged to HOT. So in the end it was not the gauge.

So my next question .... is ....I measure 160 ohms between the battery negative and the valve cover ...where I "grounded" sender ...is that a problem ? The engine need the sender has a good ground ....its just the valve cover that doesn't ...there is a wire going from car frame to valve cover but I think there is a gasket in between thus the poor connection.

Next I measured the resistance of the sender as the engine ran.

Temp Book Resist MyResistance
133F 142 77
185F 49 20
212 32 10

With these readings...shouldn't my gauge read hotter not cooler ? Or am I mixed up ....should I replace ?
thanks

 

I think I'm going to cry... i replaced the temperature sender and THAT works great...now the speedometer is DEAD....

any great ideas ?

 

speedometer ..... after thinking the worse what happened is that when I had taken the temp/speedometer/gas gauge cluster apart, the needle on the speedometer got stuck BELOW the 0 point ...so when it would try and rotate clockwise for increased speed it could not and appeared broke.

I hope all my screwups help someone else!!

 

With electrical gauges they all read different. If your worried about that stuff then put in mechanical gauges. You will be lucky if you daughter notices anything until it is too late anyway, unless she is much different than 99% of young girls. My wife is a high school teacher & I volunteer at her school. So for years I have watched this.
Your explanation was confusing talking about turning off key before the gauge got to hot.
As for the speedo did you get all the plugs in tight, I don't know for sure if the 94 had a speedo cable but if it does did you get that plugged in correctly?

 

the confusing part about turning off key ...had to do with grounding the wire going to the temp sender to see if gauge was working correctly..... so when you ground it the needle should move quickly to the top (HOT) and if it does that then the temp gauge is working right. My problem was that I did not ground it well so it never went to top so I incorrectly thought it was bad. When I grounded it did go up fast. They said to not let it slam to top so turn off car to not damage gauge.

Regarding the speedometer is was fine once I moved the needle ABOVE the pin that is at 0 that should stop the needle from going below zero. (in my case it was below that and preventing it from going above zero).

Hope its clear now