Coolant temp gauge sensor--how difficult is the wire to replace?

1FSTBRD

Registered User
This thing is pretty fragile by the looks of it, and when I was taking off the thermostat housing thing, it didn't take much to get the wire to fall away from the sensor, and by the looks of the wire, the inner metal wire is surrounded by glass, I'm assuming, to insulate it from engine bay heat so that it doesn't give a false reading. Have you guys spliced one of these in with any success, and how difficult is it to find a new wire and sensor? I checked Rock Auto, and they didn't appear to have any and had Googled the temperature gauge sensor, so if they're that rare, I'll probably have to go the used route.
 
I spliced the oil pressure sensor connector before which looks the same. I bought a used harness from thunderbird sc shop as the donor.
 
I might just JB Weld this thing back on, and then put a layer of RTV or something on the outside to insulate it a bit.
 
This thing is pretty fragile by the looks of it...and by the looks of the wire, the inner metal wire is surrounded by glass

Not sure about the glass part...sounds like the original plastic insulation turned into a brittle/burnt hard plastic over the years.

It's just a press-on connector - the stem is what...10-32? You can easily spice a new length of matching gauge wire (move back up the old wire until you find healthy/pliable insulation) in place and then use a nut/washer to capture an eye'd connector, if you can't locate a new press-on.
 
I think that you're probably right, Ken......the rubber looks like glass because it's probably been hardened. Looks like this should be solderable.
 
Solderable, and I'd use marine grade heat shrink on it (with the adhesive internally).

Wait - that's what I did when I replaced mine, and when I extended my oil pressure clip when I did the oil pressure mod. *grins*

RwP
 
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