temp light to gauge

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Yes. You will also need to replace the sending unit with the one for that gauge.

well its an oem in dash gauge -- some model trucks had them -- some just had a light -- guess it was an "upgrade" or something -- will it still be a different sending unit?
 
yes it will be a different sender for certain, a warning light will have a sender that will only switch on when it senses a preset temperature. whereas a gauge temperature sender uses a variable resistance to tell the gauge what is going on.

if you hooked the gauge to the light sender it would most likely show 0* until it hits the preset temp and then would peg the needle to the highest reading

and if you hooked a light to the gauge sender it would most likely faintly glow when cold and get brighter as the engine heats up.

hope that makes sense, and because the gauge sender uses a variable resistance, you usually cannot just use any temp sender because the gauge and the sender resistance values must match to get accurate readings
 
yes it will be a different sender for certain, a warning light will have a sender that will only switch on when it senses a preset temperature. whereas a gauge temperature sender uses a variable resistance to tell the gauge what is going on.

if you hooked the gauge to the light sender it would most likely show 0* until it hits the preset temp and then would peg the needle to the highest reading

and if you hooked a light to the gauge sender it would most likely faintly glow when cold and get brighter as the engine heats up.

hope that makes sense, and because the gauge sender uses a variable resistance, you usually cannot just use any temp sender because the gauge and the sender resistance values must match to get accurate readings
makes perfect sense -- i appreciate it.
 
Older gauges used a tube filled with an expanding liquid, newer ones use a varying conductivity sending unit.
 

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