Old car,old gauges,late engine

[lowmerc]

Any of you clever people know why my old smiths temp gauge doesn't work in my mk2 cortina? I'm running an 1996 rs2000 16v engine in it. My gauge works ok when I earth it... I've tested my sender in another car, so they both work ok separately but not together! Help!!!

[colnerov]

Hi, gauges and senders in older cars like your Cortina work on a 10v regulated supply, modern cars work on I think 5v regulated supply. so you won't get a true reading. I would say the best thing is to see if a Cortina sender will go in the head, if not leave the Escort sender where it is to block the hole, a put the Cortina sender into the top hose. When I put a GMC diesel into my Range rover, I had a similar problem and ended up wedging the RR sender behind a fuel pipe so the sender end was touching the head and it worked, not pretty but functional, ended up leaving it like that.

Colin