mine is either in the middle or on the bottom (not working). It is temperamental - when it wants to work it will, when I want it to work I smash the instrument cluster with my fist! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />
But like I said, it is ether in the middle or on the bottom too.
AUSSiE

I remember my gauge jumped right up to the middle after about a minute of driving. I got mad a tapped the plastic of the gauge cluster with my knuckles a few times and it popped back down and started working correctly and haven't had a problem since. *shrug* <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Thats all i gots for ya <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

-Scerb

Sorry to dredge this up from the dead, but I may have finally found the silver bullet that fixes this problem.

Despite my earlier post of success, the gauge started jumping around about a month after I posted that, and I'd just lived with it until now, since I'm back down in a warmer part of the country I'd like to be able to trust the gauge.

I did some fooling around with the truck 100% cold. I'd turn the key to 'on' and the gauge would come right up to the middle. The signal connection was good, the IGN power connection was good, the ground was kind of sketchy.

I put a star washer on the middle mounting screw of the temp gauge (the one that carries the ground connection) so that it really dug into the copper contact and the screw, and it's been doing fine ever since.

I think the smooth nature of the contact and the washer on the factory screw just lends itself to poor conductivity after 10 years or so.

I'll keep an eye on it, but I think this may do the trick. Sure would be nice to not have to buy 300 bucks worth of new factory gauges.

Thanks for informin' us. My temp guage messes up also so I'll give your "silver bullet" fix a try. Hope it works for me too.

Excellent! Thanks for updating this one.

Now, you still got those pics of the back side of the gauges for reference?

Yep, I'll be losing my hosting through the university in a month or two since I graduated, so I made a new writeup here.

The bottom pic has the back of the cluster. You can see the middle mounting screw for the temp gauge (lower right) shares a ground with the fuel gauge.

*EDIT* I should add it's been a couple days now, and it's behaved perfectly, not even a twitch of things going wrong. *fingers crossed*

Almost forgot to mention another thing I did. I can't prove it helped, but I can't imagine it did any harm.

I noticed all the copper contacts were really oxidized and dull from finger oil and junk on the back of my cluster, so I used some of this stuff and got them all back to perfectly shiny:


Wright's Copper Polish


I figure anything to decrease unwanted resistance is good.

I picked up one of these rad. cap/temp. gages. It appears to be accurate. Easy install!
You gotta pop the hood to see the temp.,though.

But what about us with the little filler necks?

I like to be as wild and crazy as the next guy, but I sure as hell am not going to climb out of my cab, crawl over my fender and pop the hood to check the temp. while going 75mph down the highway.

I'll try the star washer fix. I too am a member of the, 'needle shoots up to just below half-way in 30 seconds' club.