Temp. gauge

[steveolww]

Im a new member from Penn Valley,CA and I have 1969 f100 custom cab which was my grandfathers hunting and fishing rig. It had a cab-over 6-pac campershell on it when he gave it to a friend of mine. My friend dropped the camper shell and peformed some general maintence, then used it as a daily driver. About 2 years ago my friend gave the truck back to me with a dying transmission. It sat since then and now Im trying to make it my daily driver. A shop will be replacing the trans. once I get the gremlins out. I had the engine running great the other day and noticed a dial that controls the temp. gauge, I know this can't be right and my friend did have problems overheating,will have photos soon. Does any one know why this would be there? The thermostat is new and everything seems to fine. Could this dial be covering up some other problems?

[FORDification]

You're definitely going to have to post pictures of this "dial that controls the temperature gauge". I've never heard of something like that. Where is this dial located?

[steveolww]

it was hidden under the air filter, in front of the carb. Some one told me it was a riostat, it's like a dimmer switch

[SteveC]

well now thats something ive never seen before

[cdherman]

Well. I've *thought* about doing that, but never did.

Here's the logic -- say your guage always reads hot, yet the engine is not overheating and you are sure that the thermostat is working and the radiators not clogged etc. etc. Assuming that the dash voltage contoller is also working as well, then the only explaination is that the guage is reading too high.

If you really wanted to "correct" the guage, you could put a rheostat into the line from the temp sensor and play with it till the guage reads closer to correct.

This works of course only if the guage is reading hotter than it should be.

My guage reads 235 and I only have a 205 thermostat in there. Radiator is essentially new and the water pump as well. I have never, ever got it to overheat, even when I ran pure water for a while. So I am nearly 100% certain that the guage just READS hi. They are not precicion instruments.

I'd guess that is what the rheostat is for -- someone got tired of looking at a guage that says "Hot" even when its not.....