temperature gauge

[280bod]

The temperature gauge on my 280 has decided to stop working and can anyone let me know if there is any way of checking if its the sender or gauge that is faulty? And where is the sender fitted on the engine?

[jeff m]

The temp sender is the middle (and smallest) of the three senders in a housing just in front of the plenum.
You didn't say what your gauge is showing, but basically if the gauge is showing a full scale deflection it is probably a wire or bad connection problem (open circuit)
If your gauge is at zero then it could be either a grounded wire or a short in the sender.
A multi-meter test of the sender should show a much greater resistance to earth when engine is cold and a lower resistance when engine is hot.
jeff

[280bod]

Thanks for that.

The gauge is always reading zero. I'm not that well up on car electrics so do I just connect one lead of the multi-meter to the contact on sender and the other to earth to check resistance change?

[david beer]

I had a 390 se and now have a Griff 500 and we must be different as on a V8 it is totally the other way, ie open circuit no reading, short circuit max! Ohh very interesting!
David