My coolant temp sender went out in my car. I'm having trouble finding one for it. 88 GTA with digital gauges. the service manual says the sender is 1300 ohms at 100 degrees F and 60 ohms at 260 degrees F. I found the AC Delco G1852, it has the correct one wire connection that my car has, But on the specs for the sender it says it goes up to 220. Not sure if this is the correct one for my car? The reason why i need a new sender, temp gauge was not reading at all, monitored engine temp with a temp gun and fans came on at the appropriate temp. according to the trouble shooting tree for the gauge, i take the dark green wire and ground it out. i
f it reads max temp, then the sender is malfunctioning. that is exactly what is happened when i grounded out the gauge. if anyone knows the part number that i need please let me know. Yes, Im talking about the sender that is on the driverside head. not the switch on the passenger side head. not the coolant temp sender that is on the intake.


Here's a pic of the one that came out. The only identifying marks on there in AC-12V.

 

So far as I'm aware, ALL GM temp gauge sending units are THE SAME electrically, from the 50s until ... well, sometime newer than your car, which is an ANTIQUE on its own, anyway. Only differences are, the threads where they go into the casting - older ones, say mid-70s and earlier, are ½" pipe, while newer ones are 3/8" pipe - and the connector, which the plug on the end of the wire will plug onto either kind that they put on the SU so it's mostly irrelevant.

Temp gauges go up to ... however many °F. Just because you found a "spec" for some low temp and some higher one, doesn't mean that the sending unit is limited in some way to that range. After all, the engine is gonna reach whatever temp it's gonna reach, no matter what gauge package it has.

Sounds to me like you found the right one. Buy it and install it if you need it.

Shorting the wire to ground should peg the gauge. In fact that's EXACTLY what the ign sw does when the car is in Start and it lights the light, pegs the gauge, or whatever. It's the bulb/gauge test to demonstrate to the operator that the gauge system is working at least to that extent. Again, has been like that since electric gauges were introduced shortly after WW2. Disconnecting it completely should make it go to 0 (or however low it goes).

 

ACDELCO 2134793

Connector looks different, but the original connector fits perfect. I also have an 88 GTA with digital dash and this sensor does it's job since 2018 very well.

 

Does your sending unit have the tab style connector rather than the mushroom?

 

The mushroom connector is only found on the knock sensor and the 2nd fan temp switch. The gauge sending sensor always has the tab style iirc.

 

That is not correct. The one in the original poster's picture is the mushroom style. The knock sensor and fan switch use a single pin Weatherpak. Very different thing.

 

Original uses a "nail head" style

 

Yup; another name for it.

 

I have a new one in its original package from 2004. ACD# 213-80, GM# 25037346. Search shows it available on ebay from SLT Performance Parts.