testing temp Gauge

[61K10]

Is there a way to test a temp gauge on a gauge instrument cluster? having problems on my wiring harness. when i plug in my dash harness i have a one wire melt down. (pink wire)

I rebuilt my harness or should i say i attempted to wire it to a fuse block lol!!!

going to a American wiring harness (upgrade) but want to know if there is away to test the temp gauge.

I have wired more then 5 car/tks so i didn't just fall off the turnip tk lol! this one has me drinking more Bud's than normal (which is probably too many)

[ray_mcavoy]

Since you had a wire melt down, I'd recommend starting off by using a multimeter (on the Ohms setting) to make sure the gauge isn't internally shorted to ground. With the temp gauge unplugged, measure the resistance from each of it's terminals to ground (the cluster case). I don't have a 60-63 temp gauge handy for comparative testing, but I believe you should see readings of around 50Ω or higher between each terminal & ground. Readings down at or near zero would indicate an internal short in the gauge.

If the gauge checks out okay with the ohmmeter, you can ground the cluster and feed power to the gauge via a fused jumper wire. With the sending unit terminal disconnected, the gauge should read cold. Temporarily grounding the sending unit terminal should make the gauge peg to the hot side. Additional testing can be done by hooking up various resistors in place of the sending unit (connect them between the sending unit terminal & ground). Assuming it's similar to the 64-66 temp gauges, a 90Ω resistor should make it read about mid scale. And a 50Ω resistor should make it read pretty close to the hot mark.

[61K10]

Ray--thanks for the reply. i have cked with a ohm meter and have found the gauge not shorted. will do some more testing--thanks for the info.

kimble