Is there a simple way to test the water temp gauge without taking the dash apart? It's in a 70 Satellite. Not sure if my problem is in the gauge, wiring, or the sender? Hoping there is a simple test out there similar to the way you test a fuel gauge, by grounding the wire and watching for the gauge deflection... Anything?

Same thing, ground the wire, but you should be using a 10 ohm resistor in the circut as that should give a full hot reading, just grounding the sender wire should bury the needle & can burn out the gauge...I seem to recall 73 ohms is the cold reading spec...

Cool, thanks! Even if touching it for a split second, will that blow the gauge? Probably not worth that gamble, huh?.....I dont have any resistors.

You could just ground it and then with you watching the gauge turn the key on a see if the gauge rises then shut the key off as soon as it goes above 3/4 of the way up. It won't blow the gauge unless you let it go all the way to hot and leave it there.

SOunds good, thanks..I will give it a shot tomorrow after work. Appreciate it guys!