i have a 92 ranger 4x4 4.0 v6. the fuel and temp guages seem broken. the fuel guage stopped working completely, and the temp goes up a very little bit. i've never had a problem but i'd like to fix it. are these problems linked or seperate?? what do i look for to find the problem? is this something i can fix easily or should i take it to a shop. I'm doing replacing brakes, rotors, shocks tomorrow so i'd like to try and find the problem then and try to fix it within a few days. thanks

 

Have you checked the fuses?

 

yep, that was the first thing

 

Remove the water temp sender (top front of block right behind the thermostat) and ground the wire while someone looks at the gauge inside the truck (ignition needs to be on, truck doesn't have to be running), if it spikes the gauge is good and the sender is bad.

Since you say it moves slightly, the thermostat might be stuck open and the truck just barely warming up. Does the idle get down after a while to the running setting of 6-700?

Fuel is another story. You can run the same test on the fuel gauge, but the sender is an integral part of the fuel pump.

 

the truck starts up running almost 1000 for a minute a most maybe, then it goes down to about 600. i'll check it it tomorrow hopefully, whether permitting, to see whats wrong

 

BUMP!!

I have the same problem, the temp and fuel gauges are down. I'll try RangerPilot's advise and let you know. If axp117crow foun out something different, help will be appreciatted. Thanks.

 

I can tell you that on my 95 they are tied together electrically somehow. After hours of tracing wires, testing senders and connectors, I decided to pull the cluster and bench test the gauge unit itself. The temp gauge which had originally failed was unresponsive. The fuel gauge worked fine, until it blew up too. I used too high a voltage, not accounting for the actual voltage delivered to each gauge from the sender. Ford wants $175 for the temp/fuel gauge. I plan to get a used cluster and pull it from there. That way I'll have a spare oil/batt gauge also.