First off, my wiring problems. Near the valve cover their's a wiring block connector that branches off to the coil, the water temp sensor, etc. What's strange is that every single wire coming from there has been sautered back together, and poorly too. I've got bare wiring showing all over the place, I guess it's good there's so much oil on them that they're protected. Also, most of the wires are not connecting anywhere. I'm looking into seeing where they all go(my car runs, so I assume it's nothing critical). Also, many of these wires are so brittle with age the vynal cracks. After really paying attention to their condition I've decided to give them high priority of replacement when I get the time. Well, on top of that sort of scary section of wiring I also was replacing the water temperature sensor. The wire was sautered onto the water sensor ( I don't think that's factory), and the point it was sautered onto was stripped and twirling on the sensor. That gave me a section of wiring to replace and the water temp sensor, now it looks nice though. Used stainless steel nuts to keep the wire on(at least I won't have to cut the wires the next time it breaks).

Anyway, after fixing that I need to know if my water temp gauge is working. I haven't had a chance to drive my car long yet and was wondering how quickly could I tell if the gauge is working? It starts at 120(or was it 125?) and goes to 250 and I'm not sure how quickly it would get up to that range. How long would it be before I knew it was dead.

I keep asking myself, "if only I could not drive my car long enough to re-wire the whole thing"

Umm, more info? Some of what you say indicates a lot of age and some not. I strongly suggest that you get a factory service manual with wiring diagrams for your ride.

Have not looked into it, but I believe there are complete wiring harnesses available, which might be a lot quicker to do on a weekend than trying to rewire the existing stuf.

Re: the resoldering, on my 82 D150 at some point the choke pulloff heater apparently fried the wiring that goes down to the oil pressure sensor. I would guess that something like that happened in the past, causing a lot of rework.

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FullTime RVer in a 1991 Scamp 13' pulled by a 1982 D150 /6 BBD A833/OD 3.91-posi

You can remove the temp. gauge sending unit from the engine and test it by putting it into a cup of boiling water, if nothing happens you might be able to try to get a reading at the fuel gauge, if you still get no reading you've got a faulty sender, otherwise the gauge has started his travel to another world,...

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1965 Barreiros Dodge Dart. 225 / 4 speed.

The temp. Gauge sending unit is new, unless it's defective it'll be the temperature gauge.

It's may be possible to find a harness, but since the harness is in good condition it won't be too bad getting them out. If the connectors are in bad condition than I may have to destroy the harness getting them out. As for the more info., not really much more to give. Even if there were a massive failure there a person would have replaced the wires at the connectors, and most likely the wires would have been fried up to that point since most of them are 16 and up gauge wires, hence wires they're also very brittle with age. Now, as to the competance of the owner he
1) soldered the wire to the gauge, a replaceable unit
2)used crimp on wiring terminals(which he did well), but did'nt cover them with tape or paint on wiring insulator
3) Didn't rewire most of the wires, and before I got the car there was still AC in there (I took it out), but many of the wires after looking at a wiring manual should have gone to that point.

I doubt there was anything that fried the wires because since the connector is connects everything in-line, they aren't related to each other. If something fried them the only thing I could think of would be an engine over-heating situation with their close proximity to the engine but that's just speculation. I've done quick fixes before so I can relate with the previous owner, the only thing I wished is that I had some clue what happened. As you said, something could have fried them, and I'd like to know what because that's generally not good and the parts in the engine minus what I've replaced are all original so I know that if it were a part the owner didn't replace it.

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My car may be slow to sixty, but at least it's been reliably slow to sixty for more than thirty years.

[quote=
Anyway, after fixing that I need to know if my water temp gauge is working. I haven't had a chance to drive my car long yet and was wondering how quickly could I tell if the gauge is working? It starts at 120(or was it 125?) and goes to 250 and I'm not sure how quickly it would get up to that range. How long would it be before I knew it was dead.

I keep asking myself, "if only I could not drive my car long enough to re-wire the whole thing"[/quote]

You can ground-out the temp. sending unit wire and the gauge should "peg" on hot immediately. (don't keep it pegged, that could fry the gauge.
Basically the sending unit is a controlled ground for the gauge.
DD

Ah, neat, thanks. It seems like it's not working so I need to check that great(either the sensors defective, the gauge is dead, or the wire's disconnected somewhere, it isn't the resistor because my gause gauge is working and I believe if the resistor dies then both gauges go). Oddly I kinda sort of hope it's the gauge because I doubt the sensor is defective since it's pretty simple and in order to check the wire fully I got to get into a bundle of wire. Guess after I check the gauge I'll do the boil check on the sensor.

Oh some good news, My alternator wire was reconnected in three places and corroding at all of them, replaced them and now the alternator's working much better. Only have one question on that. I was looking at my wiring manual and according to it there should be a connector on it and I'm not sure why. The wire I'm talking about is the 12 or 10 gauge(think it's 12, but didn't measure it) black wire and supposedly along there I should have a connector similar to what's on the Fusible link. The manual doesn't show this is a fusible link though, it shows it connecting two of the same size wires and I'm hoping this is just for the ease of the auto manufactures on install. So, basically, is there supposed to be a fusible link on there?

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My car may be slow to sixty, but at least it's been reliably slow to sixty for more than thirty years.

Well, my water temp. guage is dead, my thermometer is alive. And I found the cause. I redid all the wiring neer the coils and made it look good I also found that one of the alt. wires and the water temp wire fused together . It was rot, I guess that when the person masks them up that moisture got stuck in there and killed the plastic insulation. Either way, luckily the temp gauge lost cause I don't think the alternator would look to good in smoke. I have a little bit more wire I wish to replace but I definetly feel safer driving my car now.

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My car may be slow to sixty, but at least it's been reliably slow to sixty for more than thirty years.