Just need to make sure...

 

if you want to make sure, get a manual gauge.

 

Er, what?

I'm just curious if my in dash stock guage is broken

 

well if it reads 0 and the car is still running.... I'd say either the guage is busted or the sender is busted.

 

that's why he says to get a manual guage.

 

It's not reading anything.

It's sitting BELOW the 0, and won't move. Its just hanging there! So is the guage broken? I bought a replacement cluster thinking it was but the 'new' cluster's OP guage is also sitting below the 0 mark.

 

Yes, the gauge is toast if the needle points down past "0."

My Turbo II was the same way when I got it. I moved the needle back to ZERO, removed the ghetto manual oil pressure gauge, reinstalled the sending unit and condenser on the slave cylinder. The gauge worked, but never indicated more than ~20PSI.

So I took out the gauge cluster, and removed the oil pressure gauge. Sure enough the small metal part that actually moves the gauge was bent in a strange way. On the other one I had it was straight. Swapped the actual guage with one from another cluster I had and it works perfect now!

Just be careful when dissasembling the parts and take your time removing the needle.

Vince

EDIT:

Your replacement one is probably bad also if it points downward. Only way to tell is to remove it and look at the part that moves the needle. IF it is straight it is good. If it has curved, no es bueno.

 

So what you are saying is.. it doesn't move at all.. ever... right? So I would vote for sender disconnected. Were you doing any transmission/clutch work? How about working on the left side of the engine?

 

or you have no oil

 

dude. just don't trust the stock gauge. it sucks more than a ***** trying to get things for free.

 

I have a tough **** for an engine block - no oil for the past 5 thousand miles and still kicking

I'll take apart my replacement cluster and see the condition of its OP guage.

 

probably the sender if you replaced the guage.

 

check that ground cable... I wanna say it's on the tranny. or is it on the firewall? it's a little bullshit one wire thingie with an OEM ring terminal

 

I have a mechanical and the stock gauge, they both always read the same so you cant just blanket statement saying the stock stuff does not work.

take the wire off the sender and ground it, if the gauge moves its the sender but its probably the gauge itself, one of my car's has the same problem right now.

 

you can get a sendre for 35 bucks at autozone

 

A sender? Elaborate!

 

I took the replacement cluster apart and found a few odd things.

The OP guage's metal thingie isn't bent but it's burnt where the wiring coils around it. After jiggling the thing around a bit with my finger the guage went back to 0 and seems to move freely and properly now. I'm making it move slightly bending the metal clip.

The OP guage has the same mechanism as the temp and fuel guages and neither of their metal clips are burnt under the coiled wire. However they move identical to the OP guage now that it's 'fixed'.

Worth taking my own cluster apart and swapping guages?