Temperature Gauge

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Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 07:48:05 -0700
From: Barney McNamara 
Subject: Temp gauge
To: Toy4x4@tlca.org, spoonee@juno.com

Mark wrote:
>Two questions:
>1) I recently discovered that my temp gauge wasn't working right.  It
>always sat on half way.  I tapped it once and if fell to where it was
>supposed to be at cold.  As the engine warmed it acted normal until it
>eventually came to rest half way.  Everything seems fine but I was
>wondering if there was a way to test the guage before something overheats
>without me knowing it.

I tried to test my sender and gauge by removing the sender from the engine,
extending the wire to the pickup and adding a ground wire from the threaded
part of the sender to the chassis of the truck. Then put the sender into a
pot of water, and boiled the water on my camp stove in the garage. I was
not too successful calibrating the gauge dial to my candy thermometer (in
the pot of water) but it convinced me that my sender was flaky. That might
help you see if the gauge will actually read higher than mid-way. 

I'm not too sure how hot the redline on the gauge really is, though. Due to
the radiator system being pressurized, water can get much hotter than 
boiling in an open pot. Any ideas on how hot the rad water really gets?
______________________________________________________________
Barney McNamara              JENNY - 83 Toyota Short Bed  
( barney@flowpoint.com )     stock 22R motor ; 3" body lift
Santa Cruz, Ca.              8" alloy rims; 31" BFG A/Ts
homepage: http://www.scruz.net/~barneym/barnhome.htm
______________________________________________________________

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Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 14:45:06
From: Ed Ruf 
Subject: Temp gauge
To: Toy4x4@tlca.org

AT 07:48 8/15/97 -0700, Barney McNamara wrote:

>I'm not too sure how hot the redline on the gauge really is, though.
>Due to the radiator system being pressurized, water can get much 
>hotter than boiling in an open pot. Any ideas on how hot the rad water 
>really gets?

Depends on the vehicle, but anything under 260F is normally considered
OK. This is the reason for a pressurised system and the need to use
anti-freeze even in the summer.

Ed

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