1983 60 overheating

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

John Staton

John Staton

SILVER Star
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Threads
102
Messages
1,135
Location
The Woodlands, TX
so I had recently done several things to the 60 when I let my son borrow it and he called and it was overheating. He also noticed the oil pressure gauge showed no pressure so he pulled it over and I had AAA bring it to the house. It had been running great the day before. The oil pressure had bounced around a bit on the gauge in the past but no problems. Anyway, I just added a good gallon of AF and it is not overheating at all and is running great again. I dont have any AF leaks that I can see and had the radiator done some years back. I do have a s***ty cap on it and maybe that is where I have been loosing AF. You can see a lot of corrosion around the cap so maybe it was coming out there. This happened a couple summers ago. I ordered a new OEM cap and After I get the new cap I guess I need to be more vigilant about checking the AF level.

Oil pressure- so I took the cover off the sending unit and the spade terminal was loose and just fell off. I am assuming I had a bad connection and that is why it was bouncing around on occasion. I crimped it and reattached and now my oil pressure gauge is pegged out High. I am assuming the unit is bad and ordered a new oil pressure sending unit today.
FJ60AF.webp

bumper.webp
 
You hooked your oil pressure wire up to the wrong point. It goes on the little round terminal on the center, not the flat spade terminal. Common mistake, unfortunately it smokes the gauge. It will not read correctly anymore unless you take the gauge apart and bend it back into place - you will notice the needle now sits way below "L" when off.
 
well s***....glad I ordered a new one. Thanks for posting!! Should I just leave it hooked up wrong until the new one comes in....will it hurt anything or should I hook it up right?? I expect the new one to be here in a few days?
Lead Head said:
You hooked your oil pressure wire up to the wrong point. It goes on the little round terminal on the center, not the flat spade terminal. Common mistake, unfortunately it smokes the gauge. It will not read correctly anymore unless you take the gauge apart and bend it back into place - you will notice the needle now sits way below "L" when off.
Click to expand...
 
I'd swap the terminal over it before running around anywhere else, if I could.
 
John Staton said:
well s***....glad I ordered a new one. Thanks for posting!! Should I just leave it hooked up wrong until the new one comes in....will it hurt anything or should I hook it up right?? I expect the new one to be here in a few days?
Click to expand...
You have it wrong. It smokes the gauge itself - the needle on the dashboard - not the pressure sender.

The gauge is a heater. As it heats up, it causes a piece of metal to bend which moves the gauge. When the gauge wire is accidentally hooked up to that metal tab (a very common mistake that people make, including myself), it causes the heater on the gauge to get way too hot, and it overbends. The result is if you hook the gauge up correctly, the oil pressure will read very low, if at all, and with the engine off the needle will sit well below "L". If you only had it on for a bit, you can likely repair the gauge by taking the cluster apart and carefully bending the mechanism so the gauge rests at "L" (this is what I did) . If you keep it hooked up wrong, you will burn up gauge to a point where it can't be repaired.
 
Last edited:
Lead Head said:
You have it wrong. It smokes the gauge itself - the needle on the dashboard - not the pressure sender.

The gauge is a heater. As it heats up, it causes a piece of metal to bend which moves the gauge. When the gauge wire is accidentally hooked up to that metal tab (a very common mistake that people make, including myself), it causes the heater on the gauge to get way too hot, and it overbends. The result is if you hook the gauge up correctly, the oil pressure will read very low, if at all, and with the engine off the needle will sit well below "L". If you only had it on for a bit, you can likely repair the gauge by taking the cluster apart and carefully bending the mechanism so the gauge rests at "L" (this is what I did) . If you keep it hooked up wrong, you will burn up gauge to a point where it can't be repaired.
Click to expand...
thanks for the reply on this. I have a new sender coming in....are you saying I dont necessarily need to replace the sender? I did go back and hook it up right and I need to drive it around to see what the dash gauge is doing. I had driven it around a bit and even had it running for 20 minutes or so while I added the AF to fix my overheating issue so I probably ran it too long. I can see if I can bend it back but if not, how easy is it to replace that gauge. Any chance you documented that fix?? I haven't looked for a new gauge but I am sure I can find one.
 
John Staton said:
thanks for the reply on this. I have a new sender coming in....are you saying I dont necessarily need to replace the sender? I did go back and hook it up right and I need to drive it around to see what the dash gauge is doing. I had driven it around a bit and even had it running for 20 minutes or so while I added the AF to fix my overheating issue so I probably ran it too long. I can see if I can bend it back but if not, how easy is it to replace that gauge. Any chance you documented that fix?? I haven't looked for a new gauge but I am sure I can find one.
Click to expand...
The sender is unaffected by what you did. That tab is just ground.

If your oil pressure needle still moved, you can probably save the gauge.
 
Lead Head said:
The sender is unaffected by what you did. That tab is just ground.

If your oil pressure needle still moved, you can probably save the gauge.
Click to expand...
Thanks....one more question/clarification. When you say bend the needle back, do you mean since it now sits well below "L" I would need to carefully bend it back to "L" with the engine off so get it back to normal?
 
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but often when this happens, the Oil Pressure gauge is beyond repair - It gets fried internally. Really only way to tell is to remove the cluster and have a look, if it's inoperative or wonky after hooking everything back up correctly.

There are some NOS gauges available as well as used, should you need it. The one for FJ62 will work fine, it just looks slightly different than the FJ60 one.

kenavt

Thread 'FJ60 oil pressure gauge fried - how to fix?'

Hey folks, I'm afraid I fried my oil pressure gauge by attaching my oil pressure sender wire to the wrong post as part of my engine swap. It was pinned high when I had it on the wrong post (presumably because I had grounded it by putting it on the wrong post), now it's always low.

Has anyone successfully repaired their oil pressure gauge - replaced whichever component was fried? I have pulled the cluster from my car, about to tear it apart, was hoping maybe someone had figured it out before.

IMG_1541.webp


IMG_1543.webp
  • Like

Now is the time to install an aftermarket Temp Gauge and Electrical Oil Pressure gauge!
 
John Staton said:
Thanks....one more question/clarification. When you say bend the needle back, do you mean since it now sits well below "L" I would need to carefully bend it back to "L" with the engine off so get it back to normal?
Click to expand...
When you take the gauge apart, there is a metal strip wrapped in wire. This is a special piece of metal called a bimetallic strip that bends when it changes temperature. Same thing used to make those big clock-style dial thermometers.

I don't remember the exact specifics of how I fixed mine (5 years ago). I took the cluster out, removed the gauge unit, removed all the screws and nuts on the unit, separating it from its housing. At that point you have good access to the mechanism. I believe I just carefully bent the strip near the base until the needle read "L" again, and it worked perfectly after that.

Edit: actually, check out the thread Spike Strip posted. It has good picturs. Even though the gauge gets toasty and a bit melty, multiple people in that thread were able to get their gauges working again. It's not too hard.
 
Last edited:
Update- overheating issue New
update-

Overheating- was the cap. Drove fine after filling and burping but noticed AF coming out of the cap the next day while it sat in the sun. Anyway, one is on the way. I would have picked one up locally, but my dealer always wants over MSRP on parts. Not sure they like to sell to the public.


Oil Pressure gauge- after a lot of reading I can see that i am not the only one to have hooked that up wrong and fry my gauge. I cant believe they put that spade on the end of the sender....just looks like it is the perfect place to plug up that gauge. Anyway, I read the threads about how to repair but I also saw Jason over a trail trailer updating dash so gauges so I shot him a message and was able to score a used one.

I have a real mystery situation going on I will post soon. This one is something I have never heard of or seen, but I trust I will get some good feedback from the forum. Stay tuned.
 
one final question- when I was confused earlier in this thread, I ordered a new fuel pressure sending unit. It arrived today. Would there be ANY reason to replace the one I have in there now? Did hooking up to the wrong point on that unit have any negative impact on it or would there be any reason to swap out the old one for this new one...both are OEM.
 
John Staton said:
one final question- when I was confused earlier in this thread, I ordered a new fuel pressure sending unit. It arrived today. Would there be ANY reason to replace the one I have in there now? Did hooking up to the wrong point on that unit have any negative impact on it or would there be any reason to swap out the old one for this new one...both are OEM.
Click to expand...

Didn't affect the sending unit. Easy to replace if you want to have a new one instead of a 43 year old unit go ahead
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom