Temp Sensor

Yes, it's a simple sending unit as far as I know. I purchased one from my local parts store but do not remember the part number. It works fine! I left the old one in the pressure can and installed the new one in the block where it is more accurate. I hope you have an easier time removing the plug in the block than I did. It was an inverted hex like an Allen Wrench. I ended up drilling and taping the threads out!

Allen's right, you on't want to put your sensor back in the stock location, If the water level drops below the sensor your reading would be of the air temp rather than the actual coolant temp. which could be a significant difference.
Put it in the block.
Hopefully you won't have as much trouble as Allen did getting the plug out.

Good luck
Gary #06984

The sender is P/n TS -58 at Autozone, Ford, Pep Boys etc, etc. Be very careful someone tries to sell you a different number- that would likely be the sender for an idiot light, which will not work. Getting the right sender will not guarantee you correct temperatures on your gauge, though. You really need to calibrate the system in your car to verify, and you'll probably need the 'factory' 10 ohm 1/2 watt resistor in the gauge line. But to calibrate it, use a variable resistor and a glass thermometer in the swirl tank.

Thanks for your help guys.

I just had a problem with an erratic temp guage, and it turned out to be something really stupid. When the car was restored the supply tank was ceramic coated along with the headers and water tubes. Also the temp sender was installed with teflon tape. Good ideas, right? Wrong. After a while the guage started to read erratically. Turned out the sending unit was not getting a good enough ground. The culprits, the ceramic coating and the teflon tape. We eliminated the teflon, and wire brushed a 1" spot on the tank and the tank bracket for a better contact, and VOILA!! Instant fix.

Eric

[This message has been edited by ETolnes (edited 11-25-2002).]

Eric, be careful and keep checking your water bottles after ceramic coating. I had mine done several years ago and eventually went to polished stainless for both because when they heated up the bottles to coat them the neck came off and the radiator shop had trouble getting the solder to stick to the ceramic coating. Anyway, I took my old bottle off the shelf to put it on ebay and it was rotted from the inside.

Gary

After a bunch of checking, I found similar things. My temp gauge as it turned out apears to actually be bad. It will read up to about 100 degrees, but that is it. I did find that the ground was not great. If you take off the sensor wire and ground it, it will peg your gauge. This will prove that your wiring is good, and also lets you know that you gauge works at least somewhat. The next step was to solder a wire from the side of the temp sensor and ground it to metal (valve cover in my case). This will prove wheather the ground is good or not. In my case the temp sensor did the same thing thus telling me the sensor was bad. Now the point of this rambling. Since my radiator cap had been regularly over flowing, it caused a build up of grime between the pressure can and the band that holds it on the car. This is the only ground a stock system will have. I recommend that everybody check and clean/sand the area where the two clamp together. This should help on that irratic reading problem.

I'm glad I could help. I was so happy that I didn't have to replace all my guages (you can't replace just one, it wouldn't look right) with VDOs.
The stock guages have gotten a bad reputation that I believe is undeserved. It's just that most people, instead of thinking a problem through, would rather replace things. These guages are simple devices and there physically isn't a lot that can go wrong with them. Ditto for the Pantera's electrical system in general. Much of its unreliable rep is from people using the wrong type of fuses (glass instead of ceramic) and the resulting failures.
A little knowledge and a lot of patience is what gets you through these problems.

Eric