Hi all - I am new to this Forum and I'm sure this question has probably been covered. I just bought a 2002 4.0 Ranger with automatic from my brother. It has 207,xxx on her but she runs great. There are few issues that I am working out but I would like to get the water temperature gauge fixed. It is apparently dead. It can only be one or all of the following -

• Guage is broken
• wire to guage is broken
• senders or sensors need to be replaced

From what I understand there are 2 sensors. If so does anyone have a picture of where they are located so I can simply replace them? Please let me know if I am on the right path . . .

 

If you go here: How To Replace the Upper and Lower Thermostat Housing on a Ford 4.0L V6 SOHC Engine

This repair is for a leaking thermostat housing, common issue for the 4.0l SOHC
(4.0l OHV engines were in rangers from 1990-2000, 4.0l SOHC were in Rangers from 2001 and up, completely different engines, just FYI)

If you go to Step 4 and look at the last picture you will see the two Temp sensing devices, and how to remove them in Step 5.

One will be a temp SENDER, that is for the temp gauge.
The other is a temp SENSOR, that is for the computer.

Now to confuse things.............Ford at some point switched to just one SENSOR, so they got rid of the SENDER, and the computer runs the temp gauge.
2002 should have the two.

Sensor will have Light Green/red stripe and Gray/red stripe wires

Sender will have red/white stripe and Black/white stripe wires
To test the gauge and wire, get a jumper wire and connect it to a Ground, battery negative is fine.
remove Sender connector.
Turn on the key
Put Grounded wire on to the Red/white stripe wire, the temp gauge should go all the way to HOT, all the way, if it does then Red/white wire and gauge are good.
The Black/white strip wire is a Ground.
So now use that jumper wire to connect Red/white and Black/white wire together, gauge should go to HOT again, all the way up, if it does then Black/white wire is a good ground.

 

Thank you very much Ron - you not only clearly explained what I need to do but you linked me to the pictures! I can do this!!!!!