Temp gauge not working

[Jalopy]

So my temp gauge has never seemed to work and my dad tested it by grounding it out and the gauge didn't move so his solution is to screw an after market gauge on and just leave the broken gauge in the cluster and I really don't want to do that is there any way to fix it mabey the temp sender is bad I just really don't want to screw a random gauge on I think it will look ugly and even though it's my truck he won't even let me try to fix it, I hope he doesn't see this post because I will be in a world or crap.

 

[newguy11]

If you grounded out the wire and the needle on the gauge didn’t move then I suspect the
1) wire is broken between the huge and the sender ( wires can break and/or corrode internally.
2) the gauge it self is bad.

Do a quick google on checking a wire for resistance (ohms ) and you should be okay. This is not very hard except for getting to the backside of your gages

 

[45tt]

All the parts for the temp are easy to replace if you want to do it yourself. The gauge, temp sending unit and even the wire are available through several different vendors. I got my gauge through LMC, the AC Delco temp sensor from AutoZone (special order, because they don’t stock it) and the wire from Napa. Just make sure you have the correct temp sending unit for your truck. My first time replacing mine I bought the wrong one and the temp did not read correctly on the gauge.