Reistor to change water temp guage range?

[Bowlsclubboy]

Hey guys...ive got a cheapo buddy club water temp guage on my cressy and the sender that came with it of course won't fit my 1jz.
At running temp using the toyota single wire sender, the thing shows 120deg appx and when drifting it goes past 150.
Am i able to fit some kind of variable resistor to try and correct this?
Cheers,
Troy

[IN 05 NT]

why cant you fit the correct sender? you can buy adaptor plugs for them,

take toyota sender and new sender to auto shop and get the correct adaptor.

[Norbie]

Or you can get a fitting that goes in the middle of the radiator hose. I bought one of these from Autobarn when I fitted my Autometer gauge.

EDIT: you can kinda see it in this photo:

[oldcorollas]

the response of the temp sender is not linear.. it might be 20K at 20C and then 200 or 500ohms at 100C. the resistance goes down with temp.

in the upper part of the temp range, it is relatively linear, so yes, you could add a resistor.

to work it out, you need to do 2 things...

1, temp profile the sender. take resistance readings every 10 deg from say, 50-100 (or 120 if you use oil to heat the sender)
2. use a variable pot to check the resistance needed for the gauge for different temps. it might be good to have a few pos.. say.. 200 ohm, 1K, and 10K? and hook them in series, so you have good control over the resistance reading..

then.. overlay the two resistance vs temp graphs, and pick a resistor that close to the difference between the two, in the temp range you are worried about (say, 80-110)

or get remote sender thingy