Perkins temperature gauge u/s

[acepi]

Need help. Is it the sensor, or the gauge? Also if the thermostat is stuck in the open position , is there a change that the temperature is to low to register? To test the sensor some said to disconnect the wire at the sensor and ground it out?
All help is appreciated

[model 10]

Even without a thermostat it will warm up. Probably 160 or so. I would ground out the wire from the guage to the sending unit. I think the sending unit acts as a variable ground for the meter.

[acepi]

Thanks again for the help. I took the gauge out , which was a big job in the lazeret. No room. Is there a way to test the actual gauge? It is a vdo temp gauge

[model 10]

You probably did not need to remove the gauge. Now that you have take a flash light battery or something low voltage and connect it across the terms. You will get meter movement if it's working.
If you have a multi meter, heat up the sending unit in water and watch for the resistance to change.

[acepi]

Need some more help. After I took out the gauge hooked it up to pos and neg, than grounded the sensor plug, and the indicator moved to hot . So thinking the gauge works? Am I correct. Next I did the test to take the sensor wire, and grounded it. No results. Needle did not move. Next I took e a direct wire from the sensor to the gauge. Nothing. The sensor Is$150. Shoul I take the gamble?
Sorry for the long message?
Cheers

[Lepke]

Did you ground the outside of sensor?
The gauge is probably ok. If you don't want to pay $150, Perkins isn't the only place that sells sensors. Try ebay. I have a small Bayliner I carry as a shore boat with a Volvo Penta. I needed a oil pressure sensor. Volvo wanted $62 + shipping. I got a NOS one for about $8 including the shipping. Go figure.
Also, you could have a corrosion issue somewhere between the gauge and the sensor.

[acepi]

Thanks for all the help sofar just found out that I have been waisti get my time. What I thought was the temp gauge sender is in fact the sensor for the alarm. One person mentioned on another forum. It is supposed to be on the side of the engine. Any Perkins expert that would agree with that. Cannot find any manual on this

[model 10]

Both of ours are on top of the head, one in front is where we have the temp and the rear one is the warning buzzer. I have been told you should measure the temp of oil or water on the way into the engine So the front one is the one on the way in.

[acepi]

Thanks again for all the help, but getting more confused. In front to the
Left there is a sensor with 2 wires. One is the alarm for oil pressure, the other one goes to the sensor sits just above the thermostat, which I thought that sensor is for the temp gauge......
Any words of wisdom

[model 10]

The oil pressure unit is on the left side of the block down in front of the starter, not on the top of the engine. I have not heard of 1 sending unit that does both warning and temp for the water.. I would guess that you have 2 sending units on top of the engine. If one of the water temp units has 2 wires, one of the terminals is probably a ground and the other goes to the gauge. If the sending unit has just 1 terminal, the body of the unit is the ground. You can't really tell by looking at them which is which, they can look identical. You really should have a meter so you can check this stuff.

[S/V Antares]

VDO gauges will normally have 3 connections + (Pos) - (Neg) and "G" which is for the sender (Geber or giver in German) and is often confused with ground. Most VDO temp gauges have a scale of 120- 250 F

VDO Temp senders have the range, abbreviated part number , manufactured date , and max scale stamped on the flat hex (Where you put the wrench.

VDO temp senders can have 1 or 2 connections on the top. Two connections is called a floating ground system and it does not ground through the block. The second terminal must be grounded to the common ground.

A single terminal will ground through the block.

Temp sensors are a simple thermistor that varies resistance as the temperature varies. They are generally robust and rarely fail.

VDO makes some OEM senders that have a switch and thermistor in the same unit. The connections are two different sizes (1/4 " Temp & 3/16 "switch)

[acepi]

Thanks again. I got the temp gauge figured out I think. Would confirm by checking if it is not the gauge, I followed the right procedure. Hooking pos and neg cable and grounding out the G, the needle moves to hot.so the sensor for the low oil light or alarm is on the left side of the engine. Would the second wire on the same sensor be the alarm for over temp? Thanks for your patience.

[roberttigar]

I'm going thru this same problem. From shooting the engine at various points I determined that the gauge was reading high by about 10-15'. Gauge checked out ok. It was hard to determine sensor quality so I replaced it for $40. Now the gauge reads 225 while the block shows 180-190 in various spots, Its interesting that the exhaust manifold is 225'. The sensor is in the top of the head, rear corner by the exhaust manifold. Any idea why the system shows that discrepancy? Bob

[charliehows]

Sitting looking at my new temp sensor in front of me on my desk. My old yanmar engine was originally fitted with a temp alarm set for about 62C. For the last 6 years I've been looking at the temp. gauge on my dash and wondering what it was connected to. Had an overheat recently and decided it was time to fix it. Tested the sensor by removing it, putting it in water heated to 80C and putting the multimeter on it – toast. Bought a $17 car temp sender (triden tts010) with a similar size thread to the original (3/8 npt vs 3/8 bsp – got some bsp couples $5 from a plumbing store and, because npt is a loose fit into bsp, soldered it in to a female/female coupling and fitted a male/male into the other end for screwing back into the engine, turned out to be the most difficult part of the job) put it in water heated to 60C and connected it to the temp gauge – good reading. I think most car temp. senders are simple heat activated rheostats, main problem is whether they match the gauge in terms of accuracy of the reading, but at $22 vs $150 I dont mind a conversion factor on reading the gauge – ie so far mine reads about 75C on the gauge for a direct read of water temp. at 60C so all I really need to know is that something has gone wrong once it gets much past 75 on the gauge. Good luck.

[S/V Antares]

The VDO temp sensors are not compatible with other gauges ....close bout a different thurmister curve.


VDO makes a combo oil pressure and alarm sensor. Look on the top of the sensor ...the combo unit will have a "Wk" & "G" on the terminals if it is a combo unit. The WK is for Warning Kontacten or some other "Germish" and switches to ground at a set pressure which is stamped on the side in BAR.