Hot or cold?

[joshman1972]

So my 1970 CJ5 225v6 is testing in me again. This time it is the water temp gauge/sender. The gauge seams to work when direct power is applied. How ever when hooked up normally it starts out cold and with in a minuet or so pegs out past the hot. Any great ideas out there? Anybody know the part number of a water temp sender for the old Dauntless Buick 225 V6 ? Help

 

[Saddle Tramp]

It could be either the sending unit or the gage, hard to tell. Any parts shop should be able to look up the part number for whoever is make replacement parts these days. It most likely won’t be the OEM number. Replace one then if needed the other. You have a 50/50 chance of making the right choice.

 

[tarry99]

Hook up a mechanical Stewart Warner guage to another fitting on the motor. Electrical guages especially old ones including the sending units are always problematic. Mechanical guages are pretty bullet proof.

 

[73CJ]

Oh come on- any gauge can fail . . .

 

[tarry99]

73CJ ............Thats true ............but Electrical guages are far more susceptible to failure than any mechanical guage. People and manufactures like them simply because there easy to install.
Been around race cars all my life , never have we ever used an electrical guage for water temp , oil ,fuel pressure, vacumn or brake pressure other than a tach, even our data recorders sensors are hard plumbed. Your Choice , Use what you want.

 

[BajaEdition]

is the gauge in the main cluster bad?
you can buy a small replacement gauge and put it in the dash
I believe that like most of the parts for that engine they share the same parts with the Buick 305, I know if I have trouble with either of my dauntlesses I default to that
and then the sending unit should be a typical GM V8 unit and you an get a lot of gauges to work with that
however, I have never seen a water temp gauge in the main cluster to be bad so I would get a new sending unit first, they are not that expensive.