Oil guage and temp switch

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sm00p

New Member
Dec 14, 2006
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New York
So my guage doesn't work and I have oil pressure. I just bought a new sender and it didn't fix the problem. I took the instrument panel off and grounded the guage and it didn't budge. My first question is if it's possible for the guage to get stuck? Otherwise, how do I get a new reciever for the guage? If i buy a new guage does it come with the reciever and everything?

I also just bought a coolant temp switch and wired it up through a relay to an electric fan. I think it's a sender though and not a switch. I'm not entirely sure. I'm sure a lot of people in this situation will tell me to just wire it up to a switch or have it always on. I don't want the responsibility of having to watch the temp guage and turn the fan on or off and I definately do not want it always on. How can I find temp switches that turn on for a certain temperature range and what range is good? I've found it nearly impossible to find temp switches with a given range outside of electric fan kits.
 
Nomad707

Nomad707

Im From The Bay
Mar 14, 2007
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Santa Rosa, California
kragen and other places offer fan switch kits that reads temperature of coolant inside radiator or radiator hose.. you can adjust when the fan turns on and turns off.. making it completely automated. i think they are 40-70 bucks.
as per the oil temp gauge.. the needle may be stuck. Have you taken your cluster out yet?
 
S

sm00p

New Member
Dec 14, 2006
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New York
I already have a fan. I just need the temp switch. And I haven't actually taken the guage out yet, I might do that tonight.
 
S

sm00p

New Member
Dec 14, 2006
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New York
The hayden fan control switch kits look good. There are 2 though. The preset on at 185 and off at 170. Are these not too low because they turn on before the thermostat opens? Also I suppose idealy the adjustable one is good. Do you know if you can set seperate on and off temperatures?

As far as the oil guage goes, I didn't see anything in the Haynes manual or the service manual that refers to replacing them. Is the guage and the reciever seperate in terms of buying it? And how do i determine if it's in fact the reciever? Can i just put a voltage into the guage once I take it out and see if the needle moves? I assume the reciever just converts the digital pulse signal into an analog signal for the guage. This is why i'm thinking they're seperate but I'm not sure.
 
jetjock

jetjock

creepy-ass cracka
Jul 11, 2005
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Redacted per Title 18 USC Section 798
The Spal is programmable and permits dual set points. It also PWMs the first fan depending on temp.

The oil sender pulses on and off by heating a bi-metal strip that is mechanically biased by oil pressure through a diaphragm. The strip has a contact point that gets pushed up by the diaphragm. This contact grounds a heating element wound around the sender's strip. The more the strip is biased the faster it'll break contact and the faster the pulses will be sent to the gage and the ECU.

The gage is servoed to the sender in that it mirrors these pulses to a heater wound around a second bi-metal strip in the gage. That strip moves the pointer. Contrary to popular believe it can be quite accurate but being a thermal based system it needs a second or so to respond to changes.

Do not apply full voltage to the gage for longer than it takes to go full scale or you'll burn out the heating element. Both the sender and gage can be tested using the procedures in the service manual and changing the gage isn't hard. Throw the Haynes book in the trash...
 
S

sm00p

New Member
Dec 14, 2006
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New York
The Spal controller looks good but it's also more expensive than I can afford at this time I think. I need to buy tires so I can pass inspection; my funds are limited. I'm sure I'll end up doing something like that eventually, but would the hayden one work for now? Is 185 on and 170 off good, or no? It's like 20 dollars or something.

Thanks for the pressure sender explanation, by the way. I had no idea how that thing worked and why the hell it was so large. I wish it wasn't such a PITA to install. I somehow managed to do it though with taking only intake lines off. So if I bought a new guage would it come with the reciever? And if it helps at all in determing how it broke, the old owner of the car, who screwed me over in many ways, had an aftermarket sensor hooked up. It looked like it was just a variable resistance sensor or something, definately not a pulse signal one. Is it possible that this just burnt out the guage like you were talking about?

And yeah, Hanes sucks. It's not completely worthless, but it's pretty bad. It helped a lot in the engine rebuild process but also left me scratching my head about a lot of things. Like when they just say to remove something. And you're like "ok I got this". Then you try to do it and Haynes didn't mention at all that there was something special you needed to do. And it loves to show pictures for everything...in the wrong model. The online service manual has been great but I like to have paper copies of thing so I kind of use both together. I don't know, I've got by this long by doing it in conjunction with this forum.
 
jetjock

jetjock

creepy-ass cracka
Jul 11, 2005
9,439
0
0
Redacted per Title 18 USC Section 798
Hey, how bout that. Another thread that proves the internet is more than a global pornography network. Why many don't seem to understand that is beyond me. I'd much rather do the leg work myself than ask a bunch of yahoos on some forum, which tend to be the worst places to go for for accurate information. Too much sifting required.
 
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