Dual temp guage.

[fyre82]

I put a dual gauge system into my '88 Ranger 4x several years ago after having the usual malfunctions and mis-functions with the stock idiot gauges.

For this write up I am only dealing with Rangers with 2.9, with and with out a/c, and with and with out EGR. Specifically this is an '88 Ranger Super, 2.9, 4x4.

I'm not responsible if you screw up, bang your knuckles or your head, fall off of whatever you were standing on, break bolts or any of the myriad of things that can happen when working on and around vehicles. You are responsible for your own/others safety.

Basic home mechanic safety rules apply:
Make sure the engine is cool.
Block the wheels, set the brake/transmission.
Disconnect the battery.
Keep your work area clean.

Ok so do the preliminary stuff,
Drain enough coolant out of the radiator to avoid spillage when the upper radiator hose is disconnected.


For engines with EGR and a/c it's tight where we are going to work:
I will be removing that too, but that is another story.

Without either one, there's plenty of room to work:

Remove the water inlet and thermostat.
Once you have removed the water inlet on the front of the manifold and cleaned that part up we can begin.

Things that you need to do this job:

The sending unit has a metric thread. The closest that my thread gauges would come is 1.5. I don't have that tap and I don't have one that matches up, so I measured the outside thread on the sender and got somewhere around 19/32.

The closest tool I found was this NPT tap:
It is not the exact thread but is close, I have made it work twice now.

It wants a 37/64 drill, ok, so who has that? Simple math to not be too big, round down to 36/64, lowest common denominator goes to 9/16, that I can do.

Mark the bit with a sharpie where you want to drill to.

Mark your water inlet where you want to install the stock sending unit for the dash gauge and center punch the spot.

To be continued . . .

 

[fyre82]

I know that you are just for more, so here goes. . .

Drill out the hole:

This hole is a bit too small, 9/16/ is -3/32 from what the tap wants.
You may want to enlarge a little if you are good with a Dremel bit or sand drum.

Tap out the enlarged hole:

Bury the tap as far as you can, clean up any burs, there may also need a bit of reshaping outside depending on where your hole ends up.

I used an old brass sender to get the thread closer and allow the sender to seat. It fits very snug, in this attempt I haven't gotten the sender as deep as in a stock position, but it is far enough in the water port to work.

More . . .

 

[jhammel85]

You must be reading my mind because I was just thinking about how to do this the other day..

Thank you for posting this!

 

[fyre82]

You are certainly welcome Jhammel. Comments like yours make it all worthwhile.

There is more coming.



Rich

 

[dave2575]

Thank you for posting this, I will do it this weekend.

 

[fyre82]

Wiring will be next;
On this vehicle the Temp sender and oil pressure are together in one loom.

The stock temp guage sender will be on the water inlet, just move the sender wire to that sender. You will have to route the new mechanical sender capillary tube from the cab to the new sending unit bushing in the stock position.
I suggest that you route it either in the wiring loom that contains the wires or close to it. If doing an oil pressure sender it is a great idea to route them both together and cover with loom cover to protect both lines, especially oil press line.

On another style the wires are routed into different looms:

When you are finished the dual water temp installation should look something like that.

You will need to position where the guage kit, guage or whatever you are using before you run the capillary tube as it does not disconnect from the guage.

Oil pressure tube is connected together by compression fittings so you can run them both together at the same time saving time and effort if you are doing those guages. If you run a triple replacement for water, oil and volts/amps they can all be run together to the guage mounting in the cab.

Protect all of this with wire loom, tape, inside existing looms, or your favorite protection.

My guages are visible just under the center of the dash, lower left in this picture.

Thats about all there is, just remember to protect the wires/tubes so that they aren't smashed, pulled or burnt to provide long service. The triple guage in my '88 Custom have been there for almost 10 years, function well and the stock guages still function as good as they did before, so someone won't freak out looking at an instrument panel that is basically dead. The real change is that one guage reads before the thermostat and one after, but at operating temp there will be little real difference in temperature.

I can do a little something for the oil pressure retrofit if necessary, but it isn't rocket science to figure that out with a couple of npt fittings and a new after market guage.

My Super will get a Dorman Champ Guage kit mounted below the dash when I finish that installation.

I hope that this helps answer some recuring questions and solve some quandries as to how to pull it off.

Thanks



Rich