Temp gauge won't come up to normal

[austinrick]

Not sure where to look next. A week or two ago I noticed the temp gauge in my '93 XLT 3.0L auto wasn't coming up to normal hot level and attributed that to very cold weather, but after a few days it wasn't coming up higher than you see in the photo (which was taken today).

I decided the thermostat (installed ~5 years ago) had stuck open and ordered a new one.

Today I installed the t-stat (Stant) and a new temp sender (Wells) in case it wasn't sending an accurate reading.

Just finished a test drive and nothing on the panel has changed.

Where should I troubleshoot next, short of pulling the instrument panel out? I've never seen instructions or a guide for disassembling this particular panel. Could there be just a poor connection somewhere between the sender and gauge?

Any suggestions? –TIA

 

[SenorNoob]

Bad connection is certainly possible. Pretty sure that gauge just reads resistance to the engine block. You can ground the wire to see where the gauge ends up. It should be pegged on the high side (I think).

Got an alternative way to measure the temp? Those cheap laser thermometers can be pretty accurate.