I possibly have one of those between year 96-97 dakotas or a 96 or older motor in a 97 body. I didn't know there was a sensor and a sender. For reference it also has a egr valve which is pre 97 right? I replaced the thermostat, coolant sensor. Been chasing my tail on why my guage never gets much over 130. Here's the thing I don't understand. If I understand this right, the sender(looking at the motor) left of the heater hose nip, runs the guage right? That's supposed to have a single wire correct? Well there is no wire attached. The guage needle does move from bottomed out cold to the first hash mark above 130, so 140-150? Hooked up to a reader the computer reads about 190-197 on coolant temp and the same with a temp gun. Am I missing somthing? Thanks. Austin.

 

97 should use both sensors. Given yours has an egr valve on it, that a pre-96 motor, which should have both sensors. The one-wire sensor is indeed for the gauge. Two wire for the PCM. (and that one appears to be working properly) Think I would look for the wire that is supposed to go the one wire sensor, see if it isn't grounding out somewhere.

 

Thank you. i cannot find a wire anywhere. The Vin # has a 8th dig Y. I will have to pull the loom off the wire harness to see if I can find it. I'm half tempted to just replace the guage with a aftermarket and call it good just for safety sake.

 

That would work too.