Need eletrical advise..Temp guage related

[ftn96]

Got a dead temp guage. Doesn't seem to be running hot, but none the less...Not good. I got this damn $40 multi-meter, but I'm no electrician and I dont want to have to start the plug and prey process of elimination. So.....

How can I test to see whether the guage, sending unit or wire is the culprit?

 

[Danno]

If your gauge never gets off of zero, try shorting the sending unit wire to ground. It should peg the gauge at the max temp reading.

If that works, it's your sending unit. If it doesn't work, you may have a busted or loose wire, and/or bad sending unit.

 

[ftn96]

Ok. Good idea. But this particular "situation" has a 2 wire plug. So could I just have the ignition on and bridge the 2 plug terminals together?