1969 gauges not working

[gruffy 10]

Removing the after market gauges the PO installed and connecting dash gauges. Starting with water temp, installed new sender, turn key to power...nothing. Ground lead going to sender gauge maxes out.. Bad sender or what am I missing?? The only gauges connected are the speedometer(cable) and Fuel( which reads WAY low for the fuel level)

[det0326 179]

Removing the after market gauges the PO installed and connecting dash gauges. Starting with water temp, installed new sender, turn key to power...nothing. Ground lead going to sender gauge maxes out.. Bad sender or what am I missing?? The only gauges connected are the speedometer(cable) and Fuel( which reads WAY low for the fuel level)

 

If I understand you correctly when the wire going to the sender

is off and power on, it stays at cold position and with the sender wire connected it maxes out to the hot side my guess is bad sender or wrong one.

[gruffy 10]

with the temp sender and gauge connected...power on... nothing

ground wire going to gauge...power on... gauge max's out

[Midlife 814]

with the temp sender and gauge connected...power on... nothing

ground wire going to gauge...power on... gauge max's out

 

Well, is the engine coolant hot or ambient temperature? If ambient, the gauge won't move off of cold.

 

It's possible that you have a wrong sending unit. Measure the resistance from the sender post to ground at room temperature and it should read something like 73 to 83 ohms. When hot, it should read something like 20-30 ohms.

 

Having the gauge max out when the sending unit line is grounded is good news! That says everything up to the sending unit is working.