when i crank my 88 T/A, the temperature gauge flies wildly over past the 260 mark. currently the car will not start (no spark) but it did this a few months ago then drove fine after sitting. Whenever the temp gauge flies to 260 as i crank, the car never fires. does any one know why the heck this is?

also the temp gauge is the only gauge moving.

 

During engine start (crank only), the gauge does a 'test sweep' to show full range of motion so you know it's operational. The gauge is grounded thru the ignition switch in the 'crank' position only. Otherwise it reads from the sender.
I've seen (and had the problem myself) many times that no spark is caused by a bad ignition module in the distributor. They can and do fail with age w/o any warning. That's just one of many 'could be's' for the no spark problem.

 

Mine used to do that during ignition and get stuck. So I put a small bead of gasket sealant (out of sight) and it made it bounce back. lol

 

ok , thats definatly a malfunctioning sensor, ....driver side head, replace it, its 5 bucks. i bouhgt a brand new one on an assumption that my old was was shot, and guess what,, it did the same thing. it shot off the scale, put the old one back in, problem solved.

get a new sensor. Engine temp sending sensor.

 

Just out of curiousity, why would you fix something that's not broken? That temp gauge should always peg out when you're cranking the engine then drop back down. If your car isn't even running, I would worry about your spark problem first. Then if your temp gauge isn't working, try replacing that sensor. Very easy to do, if you can change a spark plug then this is nothing new. Just be sure you drain your coolant first unless you want a green lake in your driveway. I can't see how the temp gauge pegging has anything to do with your no spark problem.

 

the guage has nothing to do with the non starting problem....i was just saying that if it goes up , and stays up, when the car DOES get running, ....the sensor is bad, because that happened to mine.

never ment to mislead anyone into believing that the sensor was creating a problem that wouldnt allow a spark to be delivered

 

If the gauge stays pegged, it could also mean that the wire has been knocked off the sensor. I didn't mean that you meant there is an association between the gauge and his no spark problem. That is what it sounds like he meant. His car isn't even starting so we don't know if his gauge actually stays pegged or not. A little more info would help.