Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum as well as Ford truck ownership. I recently bought an 89 f150 with the specs listed in the title. The guy I bought it off of had swapped a 302 EFI engine into it from a Bronco of an equivalent year with 170000km on it (Canadian, excuse the metrique) So although the odometer says otherwise, the seller seemed like a fairly genuine guy and I trust his previous work.

The only issues I currently have with the truck are that the front gas tank is non existent, and that the temp gauge isn't reading. I've narrowed down the temp gauge issue to the two prong temp sensor below the intake, just above the thermostat. I've replaced the temperature sending unit and the thermostat already. Although they may not have been necessary, I figured i'd start off right with the old truck.

I've just replaced the rotors and re-packed the bearings at the front hub assemblies, unfortunately while separating the rusted and caked rotors from the hub, I damaged the seals a little bit, so I will be tearing down and rebuilding again. I've also ordered some premium warn axle lockers, so when they arrive, I'll also have new bearings and seals on hand and do a full rebuild.

That being said, this truck is going to be an ongoing project/restoration for me and I figured I'd introduce myself and the truck prior to the real work taking off and any major questions begging to arise. I'm looking forward to getting involved with the forum and I hope I'll be able to bring some valid input to the table once I become more familiar with the old girl.

 

Welcome to FTE !

 

The two prong sensor is for Engine Coolant Temperature feedback. It is connected to the computer not the dash gauge.

The single prong sensor is for the dash gauge. If you replaced the sender, you probably have a bad gauge or wiring issue between the two.

 

I've checked the instrument cluster and the contacts in the cluster looked OK from what i could see although it did look like there was a contact that wasn't being accounted for by the wiring harness.

I've read there's a way to test the wiring for the sender by shorting it out through bridging two wires? I'm not too sure how that is done given that there's only one wire visible connected to the temp sender wire plug.

 

With single wire plug removed and the key on the needle should point to one end of the scale. And then when you ground the single wire plug and with the key on the needle should swing to the other end of the scale.

 

Thanks a lot for all the feedback. I finally got around to checking the wiring and everything seemed to work just fine. I narrowed it down to a poor contact of the wire on the sender, so I cleaned up the contact surface and shes working good as new.