New Temp Gauge not working??

I've been working on restoring my 52 SM and have completed all of the engine tune-ups, adjustments, oil changes etc. and the tractor seems to run strong. I replaced the gauges and wonder if the new temp gauge is faulty. I took the SM up the road and back a total of about 4 miles and the gauge never moved off the peg. It was a warm enough day-lo 50's-that I thought it should register something. Faulty gauge or something else?
 
Cover the radiator with something to let only a
little air through, take off the radiator cap and
run it until you can see the water circulating past
the neck of the radiator. Get your wife's candy
thermometer, and stick it into the radiator to get
a temperature reading & compare it to the gauge
reading. (My $0.02 worth. jal-SD)
 
I would go with the thermometer also. Those gauges won't move until at least 130 degrees and maybe even a little more. If you see more than a tiny amount of circulation in radiator with a cold engine, it is leaking past thermostat or no thermostat. Those thermostat housings are really bad for rusting out and allowing coolant to flow right on past even a new thermostat.
 
Take the gauge off and stick the end in some boiling water. You will not only know if it works, you will know exactly how it reads.
 
The neck for the thermostat has a bypass built into it. It is
probably two inches long and 1/2 inch wide (crescent shaped).
It is more than enough to keep them from warming up in the
winter. I have my radiator covered on mine as I use it daily as
a chore tractor and want it warming up. It doesn't take long for
it to get to the run area of the guage. I grind feed with it for
about three hours at a time when it is up to 50 with it covered.
It works just fine. I'd rather have them get up to operating temp
fast than putter around cold. Some are also more cold
blooded. My everyday M has always warmed up quickly and it
has a new radiator and water pump and the block cleaned.
Another one I have has always struggled to ever move the
needle at all when working in 100 degree summer temps.
 
I can guarantee you that if you block the flow completely to the radiator that engine will warm up in below zero weather. The bypass will not keep the engine cool, it only allows circulation through the engine until it warms up enough to open the thermostat. It will get warm. The reason they do not is because flow is going past the thermostat and into the top of the radiator period. IH fought those dog gone lame thermostats all their life. We used to put thermostats in the hoses on some vehicles to allow warm up because too much flow was going past the stat.
 
Have similar situation on my H. New gage hardly moved, I found no thermostat in there, so I installed one. It still hardly moved, just a little. In cold winter, I completely block off the air flow to the radiator, and the gage read nicely, right in the middle where it's sposed to. I was careful to block off the air completely. [ I had heard if you partially block off air, be sure to block it evenly so the fan is not imbalanced, lots of air on one side and not enough on the other.] In warmer weather, it heats up a little too much, so I removed the cover across the rad. Try blocking off all the air, run her, see.
 
I checked my guage a year ago or so by putting it in hot water with a thermometer. I found out the old gauge and the new one the needle moved to about the C in cold at 180 degrees. They work just not very good.

In the future I will put in a "real" temp gauge so i can see what the temp really is.
 
"Take the gauge off and stick the end in some boiling water."


NO need, in this era, for all that drama.

Beg, borrow, or steal a digital infra-red thermometer and INSTANTLY see what the engine temp is vs. the gauge.
 
(quoted from post at 01:26:01 01/23/15) "Take the gauge off and stick the end in some boiling water."


NO need, in this era, for all that drama.

Beg, borrow, or steal a digital infra-red thermometer and INSTANTLY see what the engine temp is vs. the gauge.
Ok, you have or get an IR thermometer. Where you going to point it to approximate the temperature the gauge bulb is exposed to? Then how do you interpret the gauge reading when the IR says 140? Should that be the lower edge of green? If you stick the bulb in boiling water, you know within a degree or two of what the gauge is reporting on. You know the needle should be somewhere between the normal arrow (if there is one) and the top edge of the green.

Added bonus, virtually everyone has the facility to boil water without borrowing a piece of electronic equipment!
 
"Where you going to point it to approximate the temperature the gauge bulb is exposed to?"

I'm gonna take a WILD guess here and say I'd point it the casting area where the bulb enters the coolant.

Of course, that's just a wild guess, and some would likely suggest aiming it at the topmost lugnut on the left rear wheel.

YAMMV!
 

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