stock gauge cluster help

[OlBlue1990]

recently purchased my ranger, and i realized the water temp gauge isnt working. its always laying down below the C, it never moves no matter how much i drive around, any ideas on how to fix it? ive tried searching but i cant find anything about the year of my truck ( 1990 ) i only find things about first gen, or new year rangers.

second, are there any A pillar gauge pods made for my body style that i can purchase?

thanks

truck is 1990, 2.3L

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

You might try a new senser on the engine, they are only a couple bucks.

You could probably get a universal pod to work but I don't they they make one just for a Ranger. I have my gauges mounted on a plate above the tranny hump. Some people mount one on the dash where the 4wd switch is (follow the hump along the top of the dash in front of the driver to the passenger side, where it sharply swoops down there is a fake vent there, that is the spot)

 

[mazdab40004x4]

Make sure you verify that the thermostat is doing its job too. I had the exact symptom you describe on my 94 4.0 -- gauge always reading below C. But it wasn't the gauge that was broken. It was the thermostat that was stuck in the wide open position causing the engine to never really warm up. Better than being stuck closed though!

 

[spraymonkey]

I had the same problem, I change my Sending unit to the gauge and still nothing. So i took the wire and grounded it with a screwdriver to the block to see if the gauge would move and it did very little though. So my next thought is maybe the gauge is screwed up. I cracked open my cluster and pulled out the gauge and used a Voltmeter to check the ohms across the trimming resistor. I found that it was good but then seen that the solder joints were messed up so i resolder'd the two posts and also found that the armature for the needle had somehow been jammed against the front of the cluster so i used two butter knifes and pryed it up a little and now its working great. Not sure if this would help you but it did for me and probably worth the while to check it out.