So - I am having some issues getting an aftermarket digital oil temp gauge to work. The sender connects to a threaded adaptor that replaces the oil relief plug - which I imagine many of you folks likely have in place on your beloved vans. First question - if this is your set up, have you had to ground the sender since the bottom of the block is aluminum? When I jumper a ground to the sender the gauge reads -18C which equates to 0 Fahrenheit...(I opted for Celcius over Fahrenheit). Without the jumper to the ground, the gauge reads full scale - 181C or 300 F. Note - This is just with the ignition on without any temp being generated from the motor. When I run the motor with the sender jumped to ground and the sender wire attached to the gauge the gauge just stays on -18C and there is no fluctuation - so somewhere in this equation the resistance isn't dropping as the oil temp rises....which is how I believe things work with temp gauges. If I drive the van without the sender grounded - the gauge at full scale (181C) begins to slowly decrease as the motor warms up - but continues to drop until it reaches -18C and then stays there - it doesn't set on a temperature. This gauge is from Intellitronix (M9108) and came with a sender. I had originally installed a GW sender but then exchanged that earlier this week thinking it might be the issue as it may not be matched correctly with the gauge. When looking at GW (as a resource) they don't seem to mention grounding the sender - nor did the instructions I received for the gauge and sender - however I imagine they typically sell these units to vehicles that don't have an aluminum cases and the sender grounds directly to the motor. Any thoughts appreciated as I am running out of ideas here.
Bruce |
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