Forget the dash temp gage. Do you get nice hot air out of the vents and does the upper radiator hose get hot?
The dash gages are problematic on older trucks. Mine didnt work for the first year of my ownership until I figured out where the sensor wire was broken. If you start and drive the truck and its been 10 miles of decent speed driving and you get low or no heat out of the vents then I would pull over and pop the hood. Stand at the drivers fender where you are in the air coming off the fan. If the thermostat is opening and closing properly you can actually feel the temperature in that air blast change from hot to cool to hot to cool etc.
And if you do open up the T stat housing make sure you have a new oem T stat, housing gasket, and upper O-ring as they don't necesarily all come with the new T-Stat.
The dash gages are problematic on older trucks. Mine didnt work for the first year of my ownership until I figured out where the sensor wire was broken. If you start and drive the truck and its been 10 miles of decent speed driving and you get low or no heat out of the vents then I would pull over and pop the hood. Stand at the drivers fender where you are in the air coming off the fan. If the thermostat is opening and closing properly you can actually feel the temperature in that air blast change from hot to cool to hot to cool etc.
And if you do open up the T stat housing make sure you have a new oem T stat, housing gasket, and upper O-ring as they don't necesarily all come with the new T-Stat.
Last edited: