smith88

I'm going to hook mine up there and see how it works. I had the same problem, but it was my fault. I lost the sensor that came with my gauge.

Thanks for those pictures!!!!

apreludem

my next question is...how do you hook it up? just remove the allen head plug and attach a spade connector to the wire that comes out of the gauge? How will that connector connect to the hole?

ddub

For me that location works wonderfully and no calibration is needed. Fully warmed up shows at about 180-190 and when I still had the stock clutch/mechanical fan normal city/cruising type driving in not heavy traffic showed stable temps at around 185. In heavy stop and go traffic on very hot days the hottest it'd get, or I've ever seen, was about 205 but it soon went down. Usually in stop and go type traffic and hot days it'll hang around 195-200ish. I've watched the stock water temp gauge along with my autometer one as well and when it reached the highest I've seen of 205 the stock gauge was still under half way by a little, and when it is "hot" at the 195-200ish mark in heavy traffic the stock gauge is a little above a quarter.

apreludem

DDUB: how did you connect the wires to the plug?

ddub

Remove the coolant drain plug (that's what that is btw) with an allen wrench. It IS a bit difficult to get off as it probably hasn't been removed in a while. Keep working at it as it will eventually start to move and get easier. Once it is loosened and comes out your coolant WILL ALL DRAIN OUT OF THE ENGINE, if you didn't figure that out already. That's a LOT of coolant, fyi, I was dumb and didn't realize this until I had gotten the plug out, and well lets just say my garage floor was coated in a thin layer of coolant.

Once the coolant stops draning use the "larger" adapter plug in the gauge kit. This is the biggest one the kit will come with, can't remember the exact size, and it has a smaller hole in the middle of it. Put the smaller plug (the actual temp sender) into the larger one in the middle and thread it in nice and tight so there will be no leak. Then screw the larger plug which now has the temp sender in the middle of it into the hole where the coolant drain plug used to be. First do it by hand to get it in and then you'll need a socket and ratchet. Keep going until it gets tight. Mine didn't go in all the way, had about 1 threading to go, but it was incredibly tight so it didn't need to be finished. Then hook the wire up to the temp sender with the ring connector and run that wire to your gauge. Hook the wire up to the appropriate part of the gauge and you're all good! Remember to hook up power and ground to the gauge too

ddub

The gauge kit came with the appropriate wire size and ring connector to use. The wire wasn't long enough, though, so I just got some more. I believe it was like 20 gauge wire but don't quote me on that. There are 2 nuts and a washer on the temp sender IIRC, one nut goes all the way down by itself, then you put on the ring connector, then the washer, then the last nut over that to sandwich the ring connector on the temp sender. That wire is then run to the gauge where you have another small ring connector on the other end that goes into the appropriate spot (should say on the gauge or on the instructions, or some instructions on the manufacturers website).

apreludem

greddy doesnt have the instructions on their site...and i don't have the manual =( ....and i don't have the things that the gauge came with...i only have the wires that the gauge came with but no sensor =( Does this mean that i have to buy a new gauge?

ddub

No you shouldn't have to, you just need to find the right sized nuts for the temp sender and part on the back of the gauge. The ring connectors can be found at any car store in the wiring section, just get the really small ones that are for 18-20 gauge wire, and by small I mean the actual rings on them should be just a bit bigger than the posts that they will go on.

I cannot tell you, however, what size stuff to get as my gauge is an autometer and I've never owned a greddy gauge, sorry. I can help you as much as possible, but I have limits as I'm not familiar with greddy.

You can always go to a car performance shop or something and ask them if they can get the pieces you are missing, or you could even contact greddy and ask them if what you need can be bought seperately.

If you want to try and go out to find the stuff yourself, take the temp sender and gauge with you that have the threaded posts on them that you need the nuts for so you can check as you try to find things. First stop, try LOWES, that's where I get all my bolts/nuts/washers and such, they have a HUGE selection. Just guess and check with things until you find the right thread pattern and size that will thread onto the posts easily (but not loose).

Also, you can try the Plumbing section at a place like Home Depot. This is where I had to go to buy a plug for my RB oil temp/pressure adapter plate that is made for aftermarket gauges. I even threaded the plug into the large 3/8" (I think) adapter that came with both my oil temp and water temp autometer gauges (this is the "big" plug I was referring to earlier that has the small hole in the middle that the temp sender goes in). Amazingly the plumbing section at Home Depot had the correct thread patterns and sizes for the adapters and plugs when I was looking for things, so it's just my guess that these things are really similar to plumbing stuff for household things. I'd give that section at Home Depot a shot too, may have just what you're looking for.

Good luck, let me know if you have any further questions.


*EDIT*
Just noticed you said you don't even have the temp sender, is that correct? You'll definitely want to contact greddy about that or go to a performance shop or something, I'm sure you can buy them seperately. Come to think of it, the other gauges (autometer, etc) might actually all have the same sized temp senders, adapters, thread patterns, etc., because the RB adapter plate I bought was for "aftermarket" gauges, which means it must work for a lot of different ones. Maybe they're all the same size, anyone know? If this is true you can just get whatever temp sender you can find (autometer, etc.), but don't quote me on this because this is a speculation of mine, I'd confirm it with some other people first.