Temp sender going bad or short in wire?

[IsaacHayes]

I have the 94 style single wire sender for the gauges temp sender. It seems to loose signal and drop the gauge temp to cold on and off. It was going back and forth from working to not working when I hammered it, so I thought it might be a short in the wire on the pigtail or on the engine harness side...

But then it did it just sitting there.

1) So do you think it's the wire or the sender is going out?
2) How much coolant will pour out? Should I drain the radiator?

Afterthought: I thought about putting the 3 wire CTS in and putting the wire after the pigtail through the fuel injector harness so it would all come out to the 3 wire connector nice like factory instead of having an extra random wire lengthened. But I don't feel like taking the plenum off now...

[Superdave]

not much comes out, just have the new one ready to thread in with a little silicone or whatever on the threads..


be quick


the 3 wire is the best option, it works very well

[IsaacHayes]

I would do 3 wire, but the 3500 plenum is a beyotch to get on and the bolt holes lined up with the FPR in the way, and I'd have to take off the Coil pack bracket lower bolts and all that snazz... If the 3 wire sensor is the same price I might go that route but I'll need a pigtail. I already replaced the engine CTS so it's fresh if I just replace the 1 wire gauge sender.

[19Cutlass94]

The 3wire CTS is only like $10... And the conector for it is the same as the TPS. If you wanted to leave that single wire sender for the gauge in the rear head, just cut the wire close to it, solder on a new wire and extend it over to the 3wire if you didnt wanna mess with taking it out.

[IsaacHayes]

Yeah I could extend the wire over to a new 3wire but then that wire wouldn't be all nice and neat in the stock harness. Of course it's not that neat now stock dangling around the coil packs and all.

Does the 3 wire CTS read about the same on the gauges as the single wire? Or does the gauge read in a different spot?

Oh and what's the odds of it being a short/break in the wire and not the sender?

[IsaacHayes]

I have a 3wire CTS sitting in the basement. Actually 2. I think one is from a 2.5L ironduke, it has to be unless foreign cars used the same sensor! haha

The other one is from my 97 3400 manifold.

QUESTION: How do you ohm check this thing? If it's good I might throw it in, as the sender is $20 at the parts stores except vatozone and I don't trust their electronics. Are the ohm readings for the gauge and engine the same or different?

EDIT: Nevermind, Autozone has the resistance values online!