Club 80-90 Forums

Quick question - have removed sender from back of thermostat area from 1987 2.1 eng code MV.

Gauge not registering temp so have tested sender by immersing in boiling water, no movement.

Have swapped sender and repeated, no movement.

Is there an easy way to test the gauge itself and how easy is it to replace - looks abit complicated behind the dash pod?

Cheers, Paul.

PS: ended up under canvas last week but weather was superb so got by, bit jelous of others in vans!

short the two wires where they plug in the sender, guage should go to full temp..........and light should flash, if neither happens it is a wiring problem, NoT gauge, if liht flashes but gauge dont move its the gauge......

if both flash and gauge moves up, its the sender......

Hi Steve,

shorted - no movement. Light flashes when ignition on but gauge stays put.

Any idea how easy it is to swap gauges?

ok you mentioned light should flash when shorted.

This did not happen.

But coolent sender in header tank not in engine block - am I being thick here?

But light flashes when ignition on and goes out when engine fire up as per usual.

so when you short the wirs at the sender the light flashes but gauge not movey?

swapping gauges is a tricky affair, your better to swap pods unless you have something fancy in there like a velle revy one

Hi Steve - sorry no the light only flashes when the ignition is turned on. When shorting nothing happens at all.
Paul.

then is is no signal , and not the gauge i'd say........
short them at the other end of the loom and see......

blurb55 wrote: But coolent sender in header tank not in engine block - am I being thick here?

Err well YES

Sorry mate didn't mean to be rude, just couldn't resist it.

Either you are confused or I am

You said you took the coolant temp sensor off the back of the stat housing ( which is correct ) but then you said "But coolent sender in header tank not in engine block" - not correct - the one in the header tank is to monitor the coolant level only.

My temp gauge didn't work when I bought my van, it was a faulty rear sender on the stat housing AND a faulty connector on the bottom of the dash pod. Was an easy fix once I figured out it had 2 faults !

Hi Ghost,

no offence taken - no idea where this water stuff is concerned so learning curve a bit vertical.

Interested in the comment "AND a faulty connector on the bottom of the dash pod. " do I need to remove the pod to see the connections?

Will go and fiddle at lunchtime as I am working from home today.

Cheers for help.

Aye I take it you know how to take the pod cover off as you do this to check the brake fluid etc ( so you will have done that safety check before, won't you )

You can then see the muti pin plug and socket affair.

The sliding copper contacts that mate with the contacts on the ribbon cable can get faulty. On mine I actually had to solder a wire across to make the connection as the contacts were beyond repair.

I take it your gauge did work up until recently ?

I have taken the cover off to top up the brake fluid. But never removed the entire pod - does that mean the reservoir comes away with the pod?

Gauge never worked, van been stationary for a few years so these little bug bears are popping up here and there.

All other dials etc work perfectly.

Was overheating (see any one of thousands of my other posts on this bl**dy subject)

so working through Mocki's bleeding routine but cannot do so without a working temp gauge.

Also going to replace thermostat as a matter of course as I have a replacement ready.

Aye mine had a duff stat when I bought it too

I wonder how you are with electrics ?

I ask because if you roughly know what you are diong you can check the wiring fairly easily.

Actualli I did not tell the full story of mine above.
It had 4 faults that affected the gauge

A = Stat
B = Faulty connector in dash connector
C = Sender on rear of stat housing duff.
D - see below

"D" was that someone had atually managed to get the little copper crimp thing out of the plug in the dash, and had pushed it back into the wrong receptical ! ( it was plugged into a position that had no wire of any sort on the other side !!)

Luckily the ribbon cable is marked with what does what (after a fashion) and tracing the wire from the sender through to the dash, with a multimeter was easy, then tracing the feed to the actual guage, using eyes and the multimeter was not too hard. It was then just a case of mating the wire to the gauge

If you have a multi meter you should be able to figure out as I did.
You can earth the CORRECT terminal of the gauge to check it is not the fault. BUT if you earth the wrong terminal, you will blow the voltage regulator chip and the fuel gauge will stop working too

This where a bit of electrical knowlege helps !

Oh and you don't need the guage to bleed the system, just wait till the rad fan has kicked in, then you know the system is up to temp.

btw, this can take a long time to kick in at tickover, and needs a correctly working stat to work.

Steve & Ghost

ta for info am about to launch into testing as per instructions.

Leccy a bit weak but can, with time, get by.

I am assuming that ignition has to be on for all tests.

Going to try the following:

1. Short the sender to make the gauge read hot.
2. Check the flashing light at the same time.
3. Remove instrument pod and check wiring.

Report back here and receive the bad news.

Tomorrow:

1. Go see GSF and part with more cash.
2. Bleed the bleeding system if gauge working.

Back in about 3 bruises and a skinned knuckle.

Cheers. Paul.

OK here are the findings:

Sender removed from back of engine (front of van).

Connectors removed from terminals.

Ignition on.

Light flashes.

Connectors shorted.

No movement of needle but light remains flashing.