[TBONE1964]

Originally Posted by ray_mcavoy

Sort of. By that, I mean the 73+ temp gauges will peg full hot (just like the 67-72 temp gauges) if they have a bad ground connection. But the design of the 73+ clusters is different (they have a plastic housing instead of metal). So the fix of adding a ground wire as shown here doesn't directly apply to the 73+ clusters. All of the gauge connections (including the ground) in the 73+ clusters make use of springy metal clips to connect the studs on the backs of the gauges to the traces on the cluster's printed circuit. Sometimes those clips get a little bit of corrosion on them and no longer make good contact with the printed circuit and that could cause a bad ground at the temp gauge.

Another thing that can cause the temp gauge to peg full hot is a sending unit wire that has shorted to ground. So it's a good idea to carefully check the wire (usually dark green) that connects to the temp sending unit to make sure it hasn't melted against the exhaust, hasn't been pinched, chafed, or otherwise shorted to ground anywhere.

Good advise