yes definitely get an electronic version & what Dave said, I was thinking the same thing that if you ground it & it pegs that it is the sender (or sender outer body not grounded) at least on the gas tank sending unit tho you would think the temp sender operates the same way but he did mention a very low voltage reading but maybe the pulsating method it gets 5 volts is misleading on some meters. jumpering the sender body (not the threaded stud) on it to ground would answer that (or ohming it) but he said he replaced the sender with no change. keep us posted.