I have some underdash Summit Racing gauges in my car, for oil pressure and temp. The other day the temp gauge just stopped working, however it seems that if you fiddle with it, it will work for a bit then stop again. It's kind of working intermittently on it's own like something's loose. I think I did gently brush the wiring on the back with my hand before this started happening when I was messing with something else on my dash. Always worked fine before this! There is a decent amount of slack in the wire and it's all bunched up/tie-wrapped behind the gauge.

Obviously something must be loose, but does anyone know how these work? The gauges were in the car when I got it and while I figured it was probably a loose ground, I'm hearing now that the wire that runs from the engine block to the gauge actually has pressurized gas or ether in it? How do I tell if it's a mechanical or electrical gauge? Someone told me a mechanical one will have a copper tube, while electrical is a wire...my gauge has one wire going into the back that's a little bit thick, maybe 1/8", but seems thin to be containing a gas or anything copper tube like.

Pretty sure all the Summit branded gauges were electrical.

A mechanical temp gauge will have a thick, metal, corrogated tube going to it. It'll look kind of like a metal version of split-loom. I doubt that's what you have.

Stick your head behind there and re-tighten the sender wire.

It may be a ground, but I'm leaning more towards the sender wire. More than likely, the installer hooked all the grounds together, so if the other gauges and illumination still work, then the ground is probably ok. But then again...

Fiddled with it and didn't really get anywhere...I don't know what the problem is. Wasn't expecting it to be as much of a pain to get under the dash just to look at things!

For clarification, these are the bastard gauges I'm fighting with, the oil pressure gauge works fine (it actually has an oil line running to it)





This is the sender in the head:



It's just that wire going from the sender right through the firewall and to my gauge. I still don't know if it's mechanical or analog though!



That's the "pissketti" I'm dealing with under the dash too. You can see how the slack from the temp gauge wire is all mushed up.

Your oil guage is mechanical.

That is my final answer.

LOL

Seems that this actually is a mechanical gauge...wanh wah. I'm going to see if I can straighten out the sender, if I can't, I'll see if I can get a new sender only, if I can't...I'll either leave the dead gauge there and be mad about it for a few years, or just replace both of them with electrical ones...

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G2953/?image=large

Yup.. Dat's a mechanical gauge. I don't think you can repair them, can you? I thought you had to keep the wire as all one piece attached to the gauge?

Yeah, get a new set of Summit gauges for cheap with a volt gauge, too.

That kit comes with an ammeter gauge, aren't those basically useless? I remember they were put in all the old cars but required a real strong circuit because the flow of electricity actually went through the gauge...you see a lot of old Mopars with melted gauges that have been bypassed...