rangepony69

My temp gauge on my 73 doesn't work....I went to ground the wire to the sending unit and it has a two female blade parallel plug. The sending unit has two male blade leads at 90 degrees.....all the sending units at NAPA etc have a single post....I'm lost.....what should I be looking for?

0Willcox Corvette

1973 temperature senders only had one wire and was located on the driver side under the exhaust manifold.

The TCS switch is located on the passenger side and this is a two wire sender, but it has nothing to do with the temp gauge.

Here is the temp sender

rangepony69

Can you tell me what the TCS switch is and what it looks like? I assumed the female plug was for the temp sender as it was taped into the wiring harness.....probably need to look for another plug over in that area.

Thanks for your help!

Blue73Shark

Check here for a picture of the TCS temperature sending unit:
https://www.paragoncorvette.com/p-35...er-switch.aspx

An explanation of the system can be found in the posts of this thread:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...lenoid-do.html

Fran

rangepony69

Thanks....my distributor has a vacuum line going to it so all of this must have been bypassed. Many thanks for your help.

rangepony69

OK...I finally have this figured out....the temp sending unit is as the Wilcox post described...on the left side of the block forward with a single male tab. The sending unit on the right side of the block toward the rear is for the TCS system which has been bypassed on my car. I found the wiring for it taped into the harness going to the starter when I finally got the car on the lift.

Many thanks for all of your help!

R

jackson

Some folks report parts store senders not accurate ... some report lectric limited senders are accurate ... YMMV

https://www.lectriclimited.com/tempe...ng-unit-108486

0Willcox Corvette

Hate to say it and I don't like going against the grain... ... but I call BUNK...

I've tested every reproduction and replacement sending unit on the market place... They all cause issues and so I decided to cut everyone of them open in the lathe.... It was a fun time for sure but the results were not spectacular.

One missing ingredient from the replacement and reproduction senders is the oil inside and while some boast that theirs has the oil... Not a single one has it...

I can send you a spread sheet of the units tested, and I can also send you pictures after we cut the so called correct reproduction apart..... NO OIL...

What is funny is that the issue isn't the oil, the oil inside keeps the spring from corroding where it makes contact with the top button and the thermister. That is the sole purpose of the oil inside and the main reason original senders fail. When I've cut originals apart they usually have just a tiny bit of oil left inside of them and they are usually corroded where the spring touches the top button. You can review my restoration (and I will not do this for service job any longer, it takes too much time) at this link... What a PITA to rebuild one and the cost is probably about 200.00 labor time to do this. When completed you'll have a perfect working good unit but it still won't fly for any judging. http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/1...ender-cleaned/

All reproduction senders and aftermarket senders are incorrect. Now I will say that years ago someone purchased a TU5 from us and swore it was correct but it had to be a fluke... The TU5 is made by Wells and supplied by Autozone stats are show below as are the required input for the 1968-1974 gauges. This sender must have been a fluke, because I've tested them probably six times in the last five years and never received anything that was close to being correct. Your best bet is to buy the adjustable resistor and just dial the gauge in correctly by making a linear change to a non linear gauge.

Below you can see the test reslults for the TU-5 sender.. If you go to my required input page for the appropriate sender you'll see these results match nothing....


The correct imputs for the 1968-1974 temperature sending unit....