Temp Faker removal:



Work safe. Make sure you have your anti-theft radio codes, if any, and disconnect the negative battery cable.

Remove the headlight and dimmer knobs. Remove the plastic panels to the left and to the right of the cluster.

Four screws hold the cluster into the dash.



Set the cluster on the steering column.



Make careful notes where all the wires and plugs connect. Don't trust this to your memory before disconnecting them.



Lay the cluster face down on a clean surface and remove the 7 screws around its perimeter to separate the circuit board.





Under the temp and fuel gauges is a small daughter card. This is the temperature gauge stabilizer board. Pull it straight out. The board functions to reduce warranty (ha!) service by classifying varying temperatures, as sensed by the thermistor in the head, into three ranges of the gauge. It turns the gauge into an idiot light with roughly four states: cold, cool, normal, and hot.



But the add-on "afterthought" board didn't have room for decent connectors, so those tiny Berg sticks it makes contact on become weak and worn with vibration, moisture, and temperature extremes under the dash.

There are several options at this point. A replacement board could be installed, which would renew the female portion of the connection problems. The contacts might be painstakingly cleaned and retensioned. Or the board could be tossed in the trash can and replaced with a jumper from input to output, re-establishing the original analog temperature gauge as cars before 1986 were equipped.

Several options to jumper it too, depending on what's handy for you. A jumper can be soldered between pins 1 and 3, or wire-wrapped, or you could employ modern "insulation displacement" techniques (suggested by Sven’s Maintainer) with a piece of lamp cord.





Wire wrap used here





Push the unstripped ends of the lamp cord over the sharp Berg sticks.



When done jumpering, a continuity test can be made before assembling the cluster back into the dashboard. The photos below illustrate where to connect an ohmmeter, or continuity buzzer, to test between the gauge terminal and the cluster's pin leading to the temperature sensor on the head.





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