i really need to knwo what really causes this, i know its happened to others, i need to know for sure if it means ign switch is worn bad or if guage is worn bad or what, seems to read accurately, just that i had to remove instrument panel face lens and leave it off so i can unstick the needle everytime car is fired up, it pegs way past hot real badly. its always done this sinc ei got the car about 4 months ago, is old symptom that im tired of having., maye it has something to do with fact that ground wire for heater blower motor relay was missing its ground source when i got the car ? had to make a ground source(was not providing any ground at all for it for it) cuz i have no idea where on car the blower motor relay ground wire attaches to body at.. no one seems to know that much. if its bad guage then where do i get a new repacement '84 camaro one ?? dealer have them ?? thanks for anything,

Sounds like a worn gauge to me. You can just pull one out of a junk yard. Since you have an 84 you may be able to find a better speedo while you at it if you want.

Before you go getting a new gauge and going through taking apart the dash try this. I had the same problem, and it wasnt the gauge. The way it works is there is a temp sensor on the drivers side of the block between 1 and 3, it should have 1 green wire going to it. This sensor changes the resistance to ground as it heats up. So either the wire came off and is grounded, there is a cut it the wire that is causing it to ground out, or the sensor is bad. Have some one watch the gauge while you play with the wire (move it around, unplug, whatever) see what happens. If it stays pegged out then its probably the sensor (like $10 at auto zone) usualy if the gauge is bad it just doesnt move at all or it jumps all over the place. Hope that helps a little.

no no... its not sending unit, trust me... lol., i know all about how the unit works and th wire that runs off it ,m the system is variable ground(green wire) posaitive all the time with car ignition on,
i mean it pegs ONLY upon cranking thre engine over to start it up, then it stayw pegged wayy over on past HOT and jams there badly, i have to physically move the needle off the jam and it wil flp back down fast and hard to 100 and work fine after that working its way up to 220 or so operating temp. works fine other than major peg out at cranking of engine times.

wil see about new guage availability

if anyone else knows of other problem that causes this- other than a faulty worn out guage- then please do lemme know ASAP, if the damn thing still does this with new guage, then the car wil never see another day of care taken towards it, tired of al the stupid things wrong with it like this, i would like to just sell the car and find a truck again for once, stupid problems like this never happen in trucks ever, so much more useful and sturdier than most 80's cars... IMO*

this car HAS to be worth 900 then, i mean damn its strong runner, looks halfway decent for a daily driver and is t tops and 3.73 and a Z28, i mean dang.,,,, ive been trying forever to sell this car to a good home,.
I need a truck !

* also what years speedos in these cars after 84 are mechical cable controlled yet and wil work in 84 cluster ??

i suppose i wil screw around and repair some of the stupid things that were already wrong when i got car a few months back, til car finds new home.... cant fix the lower door hinge or windshield, or headliner material glueing on( i started this repair already, am in middle of it) someone else can finish that.


a halfway decent pic of car here is a dark brown color, too bad pic was taken in shade, oops

http://groups.msn.com/fastest68/84z28.msnw


thanks guys for anything at all

I know at least up to 86 were still mechanical. I founs a 145 mph speedo in a junk yard from an 86.
Do a search I know it's been listed here befor.
I wish I had the cash I would buy the car.
I also have a 84 Z28 With the 5.0 h.o.
Only difference is I have the 5 speed instaed of the auto.
Any more questions feel free to ask.

so anything camaro and stil mechanical will fit and work in mine right ?

yeah i have another Q, lol
how to find out for 100% sure that its the guage thats junk in my case of the peg out upon cranking engine case,.

thanks@

My temp gauge pegs out, and my brake light comes on. Not a problem though.

All TG's will peg the temp guage at start up. It is the start/test function provided by design. When the guage fails it will peg and stay there. The start/test is very similiar to vehicles using warning lights, they illuminate them at start to indicate they are working. Best thing is simply replace the guage. Part # for most TG's is 25034460. It can be purchased for $32.98+ shipp at www.gmpartsdirect.com.

33 bucks for a guage, hmm..... sigh...
i dunno,,,

Dere's always da boneyard.

You can also bend the lip of the gauge a little so the needle doesn't slide over the top of it & stick. That trick worked on my camaro anyways.

hmmmm.... dunno if that would stil prevent it form hanging up or if it owuld just allow the needle to jump past hot even more,,.,

hmm,

When I swapped out the cluster in my camaro, the temp gauge worked foin for a month or so and then began sticking on the sweep test during a start. For a while you could smake the dash & it would unstick but, progressivly got worse.

I took all the stuff off, checked where the needle was sticking then used a pair of needle nose pliars to ben the lip up so it made a stop, in a sense, for the needle to bounce off of instead of it being able to slide over the edge of the gauge face.

Maybe this will help explain what I mean better... I think (or I'm just wy off base.. I really need some soon )

Duh.. I guess attaching the image would have helped out a little too... :sigh:

All of the camaro guages are interchangeable from 82 to 89 all mechanical...except the tach, they are specific to V6 or V8...FYI for those who have idjit lites you might need to swap the whole cluster assembly and get new senders so they read correctly. Just go to the bone yard and yank a temp guage, if you cant find one I got one or two around.

Just a couple little corections to this.
The gauges are all elctrical not mechanical(there is a difference).
The other thing is the speedometers were cable driven upto I believe 86 or 87, after that they had electric speed senders, no speedometer cable.

You are right racer, they are electronic(I was at work, so my brain wasnt in gear0...cept the speedo which in the camaro is mechanical until 89, I am pretty sure of this.

Actually you are both correct in a technical way. They are electro-mechanical devices. The guages consist of a coil of wire which as current flow through it changes a magnetic field which in turn moves the pointer.The guages used in our TG's are referred to as balanced coil type. The tach has an electronic circuit on it's rear, but after the circuit looks at ignition pulses it essentially does the same thing as the others.