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Coolant Temp Sender- Which Part?

His is a 97 so its exactly like mine (the first one i posted) so it threads in. when you said the second one was wrong, what part was wrong? the connector?

you might also try talking to Bill Jenkins and see if he can help you figure out exactly which one your car needs.
 
The connector was wrong and the hex fitting was far too big to even fit in that location. I picked up a few senders today and I will let you guys know what happens when I mess with it this weekend. Too cold outside right now!
 
Fixed the car today-- what a relief! This whole thing had me so mad. Now I just have a pile of unused senders to return.

I bought this http://info.rockauto.com/SMP/SMPDetail3.html?TS390.html and though it wasn't a direct fit, I was able to make it work.

I had to remove the thermostat housing (luckily I had a new gasket stashed away for where it mates against the head) and with it in a vice, I took the old sender out. It threads into a metal boss that is somehow fixed within the plastic housing. The push-in replacement sender was too large in diameter to fit within the threaded hole, and the threaded metal piece would not pull out no matter what I tried, so I just drilled it out with a 1/2" (i think) drill bit. The sender fit in perfectly but I didn't feel secure about it not popping out under pressure, so i JB welded the sensor into the housing and let it cure for a while. Gauge works fine now-- even if it's not the one specified for this car, the connector fits and the resistance coefficient seems to be about the same, so it's all good.

One thing I noticed is that on my car at least (00 Zetec ATX) there's absolutely no way to do this job without completely removing the housing, upper hose, heater hoses, etc. Good old Ford engineering!
 
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