I am not getting a temp reading any ideas? got a green wire disconnected on the left side with the ac wires. Could this be the wire. I swear always something with a misplaced wire on this car. Maybe not.
1987 Firebird 5.0 tpi.

 

bump

 

And it stoped working right after i did my spark plugs

 

Look for your Coolant temperature switch on the driver side head by the most forward exhaust port. It's screwed in there, and has one wire going to it. The wire might be faulty, or the sensor's shot.

Unplug the wire on the sensor and drive around till your engine's hot. Grab your ohm meter and put the positive lead on the sensor's terminal, and the negative lead on the battery ground. If the resistance numbers are close to what you see here, and what you think the engine temperature is at (probably about 190F), then your sensor is good and the problem is the wire going to the sensor.



IIRC, 12+ goes into the sensor and grounds through the coolant temperature switch. Technically, if you touch the sensor wire to the block, the temp sensor should peg all the way hot.

EDIT: Yes, looks like that green wire might be it. Touch it to the block and look at your gauge to find out.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Probably knocked it off by accident. Its a single wire connector on a sender between #1 and #3 plugs. DK GRN wire, white connector, sometimes the connector is melted off leaving a bare terminal (still ok)

 

Yeah that sensor between 1 and 3 is broke. single wire on passenger side.

 

Drivers side is coolant gauge sender, pass side fan switch

 

would the fan sensor cause the gauge not to work?

 

and would the collant guage be near the exhaust manifold? Or is that the sensor on the front of the intake?

 

Fan switch kicks the primary fan on. Nothing else

Gauge sender drives the gauge, nothing else

CTS in the front of the intake near the waterneck tells the ECM how hot the engine is

3 different parts, switch, sender, sensor, 3 different jobs

 

Unless it's a TBI car (not in the OP's profile), then it's the only fan. Still the only job it does.

EDIT: I failed to see it in his original post as TPI.

 

Ok. So i found a green wire on the drivers side, i found the gauge sensor and plugged it back in and the guage works perfect. The primary fan is always running even with the sensor is broken. is this unusual?

 

Its been rigged. Find the fan relay near the booster and see if any tweaking has occurred

 

most likely the wire that supposed to run to the fan switch is just grounded out somewhere. its a common thing to happen. the fan switch breaks and stops working. and people just ground the wire making the fan run whenver the key is on, instead of replacing the switch.

 

Yeah its been rigged big time i will have a pic up later