New guy, need some help

[Col. Mustard]

Hey everyone I'm Levi just joined the forum, haven't had a chance to look around but seems like a great place. I have a 73 c10 with a 250 and 3 on the tree, has been a pretty good workhorse until recently.

Couple weeks ago I found out the head was cracked, got a new one slammed in and got the truck running great. Only issue is the temp gauge The one on the water outlet/thermostat housing broke so went to use the one on the head. Using the stock wiring it would either bounce all over the place or redline within 5-10 minutes. Put a equus mechanical gauge in and sat at 195 for 20+ minutes idling, but as soon as I start driving it will fluctuate between 195-230ish. Took it to a shop and they are telling me that the sensor in the head is for a light (which I don't have) and the one in the tstat housing is for the gauge, at this point I don't care which is which im just tired of not driving my tuck.

Anyhow thanks in advance for any help and hopefully I can return the favor sometime

[Daner]

The shop is correct. You can get replacement senders from several of the parts vendors.

Almost forgot Welcome to the forum!

[Col. Mustard]

thanks for the quick response, funny thing about the sender in the tstat housing is that my original one broke trying to get the old sender out, got a new one through the shop with another broken sender, and feels like it will break on the way out as well.

Called oreillys to get a new lower housing, what they have has the threads for the sender above the tstat, will that work?

Also, why would I have sensors/senders for a light and a gauge when there is only the gauge in the cab?

[Tinkermc]

Welcome to the Forum

[PanelDeland]

WELCOME!!!!
You got the one in the head when you swapped the new head on.You just need the right sender put in the Tstat housing for your guage to work.

[Col. Mustard]

Ok so I talked to a couple old wrenches, they told me to put a 180* tstat in, which I did and it seemed to solve my issues. As of today with a couple test drives in back and forth to work heres what is happening;

Between 30-45mph mech gauge I got from parts house sits right at 190 ish

When I'm on the freeway or goin uphill it climbs up to halfway between 190 and 230, and there's no number there so I'm goin to call it 210-215

So I guess my question is are these temps normal or do I have more work to do?

[Redline novdog]

Sounds to me like your water pump belt is slipping at highway speeds!

[Col. Mustard]

Been a while since I've been on here, things have been a little wild lately. Any how I was still having fluctuation issues with sensor that I put in the head. I put a new fan belt in and also replaced my radiator which had started weeping. Drove yesterday and everything seemed fine, but I just drove home from work and she started doing the same things.
So I guess my question is should I plug the hole in the head and get a tstat housing with a temp port and throw that in?

[PanelDeland]

I would suggest that you check the wiring and plugs to the Cluster.Sounds like you're getting fluctuations in the readings and the signal may not be solid to the cluster.I have also had this problem with a bad/loose ground to the cluster.You might start it with the cap off and watch the guage while using a thermometer in the rad.It should tell you if the fluctuations are actually there or if they are just showing.This will let you narrow it down to a guage/wiring issue or an actual temp issue.

[Col. Mustard]

Thanks for the input but it couldn't be a ground issue as the temp sensor I am using is a mechanical one I got from oreileys. I am wondering if I have an air pocket in the system, or if I am being over critical...just don't want to break down on the way to/from work, again