Hey everyone, I'm having some issues with my truck. It over heated on me last week, so we pulled it in and replaced the thermostat, housing, hoses, and both temp sensors. The sensors were from Napa, and did not give a reading on the temp gauge (stuck below cold). We thought it was the sensor, so we swapped it for an oem ford sensor. That still didn't work, we also shorted the coupler that it plugs into and the gauge spiked to all the way high. Can anyone help point me in the right direction, so I can get my truck fixed?

 

It is possible the cluster itself is the problem. Although uncommon for clusters to 'go bad', it's not unheard of either.

Do you have any Ford scantool software or any other OBDII device that can see the coolant temperature status?

If so, you can see if the computer is seeing changes in temperature. If it is, then you know at least that half is working, and the signal is either getting lost or the cluster is kaput.

If you don't have any ford scantool software, snag an ELM327 off ebay and download the windows installer of forscan from forscan.org. 15 bucks or less later and you can read anything the ranger will tell you; or any other ford, merc, or lincoln product for that matter.

 

Welcome to the forum.

I assume the engine is actually warming up so gauge isn't showing actual temp.

Connector for Sensor for the Temp Gauge will have a Red/White stripe wire(to gauge), and a Black/white stripe wire(for Ground)
ECT sensor for computer will have different color wire.

If you jumped these two wires together and gauge went to full(HOT) then wires and gauge are good, sensor is bad, or the wrong one.