OEM Temp Gage

[shockseals.com]

Where does your needle stay? Mine flcutuates a lot from left of center to right side of the M. I recall my ranger(same cluster) doing the same prior to replacing the fan clutch but its been so long I could be wrong.

Where should it sit optimally? How much does it fluctuate? I recall no fluctuation after replacing fan clutch on my old ranger.

[baja-chris]

Mine sits at 11 o-clock with a 180 t-stat on the new stroker. Long hard pulls in sand and it holds pretty steady, never above 12 o-clock. I'm going to put a 195 t-stat in it and that should move the needle to 12 0-clock.

Check for pressure leaks. I had a pinhole leak that would piss out coolant at pressure then seal up after pressure gone. Try a new cap also. Does your coolant level drop?

[shockseals.com]

Topped off coolant when I bought it and put new cap on. I will check today if it has dropped.

[MOSS2]

My 96 does the same thing. I still havent replaced the thermostat though. My heater works great so I dont think it is running too cool. My 95 F150 did the same thing from day 1 and I bought it new on the lot. I guess they couldnt get away with just putting in a switch like they did for the oil pressure "guage" on the later models. If you notice your oil pressure never changes unless it is shut off. That is because the sender is just a pressure switch. Someone at Ford told me you could use an older sender and get the guage working but I never got that motivated to try it. They said they changed it because of complaints that it moved too much just like the water temp does.

[shockseals.com]

Mine sits at 11 o-clock with a 180 t-stat on the new stroker. Long hard pulls in sand and it holds pretty steady, never above 12 o-clock. I'm going to put a 195 t-stat in it and that should move the needle to 12 0-clock.

Check for pressure leaks. I had a pinhole leak that would piss out coolant at pressure then seal up after pressure gone. Try a new cap also. Does your coolant level drop?

New T-stat, cap, hoses, cross over hose, removed oil cooler...pressure checked for leaks. Leak at 2nd fitting off neck to throttly body and leak at throttle body. Fixed both those and leak at tank.

Tossed in new radiator. Be curious to see gage once this thing is rolling again.