92 2.3L vert tach & water temp gauge issues

ssgtdirt

New Member
Nov 22, 2010
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Sumter, SC
been away for awhile, mostly due to my failed attempts at selling my 92 2.3 vert (not that I don't like it, but need something a lil bigger so the kids can ride, too)

my tach hasn't been functioning properly. it stays between 3500-4000 rpms. not really a big deal, since its an auto tranny. also the water temp hasn't been working while driving, but has been working @ idle.

today, a friend advised me to rearrange to plug wires on the intake side (front) coil. he claimed that swapping them front to back would help performance. I followed what he said, & unhooked the battery for about 45 mins. when I drove to the store later, it felt a lil stronger on the "butt dyno" & the tach & water temp gauge both appeared to be functioning properly.

is there a logical explanation for any of this?

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Not quite sure what you are saying, but I assume that you moved the plug wires tht were originally on the front coil pack and going to drivers side engine to the back coil and back coil wires to the front?

I know that the DIS fires one coil and then the other right behind it, maybe switching sides that fires 1st helps in the ignition department?

I wonder if you have a bad coil in one of your coil packs. You can verify that by unplugging one of the packs and see if the engine runs on all 4. I had a coil out on both packs on mine - but on different cylinders - so it would run ok when both were plugged in, but missing when only one was plugged in.

As for the funky tach readings - i had that issue with my car and once i replaced the coil packs and DIS module it returned to normal. The tach would read fine sometimes and hover at the 3500 to 4000 range others.
 
I was mistaken about the water temp gauge. it is still only going up just above 130 unless parked & idling.

as for the plug wires, I didn't swap them from 1 coil to the other. I just swapped the front & rear placement on the front coil only.

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I was mistaken about the water temp gauge. it is still only going up just above 130 unless parked & idling.

That is simply due to the factory junk sending unit and gauge. I've owned 5 or so different fox body mustangs and have yet to have one with a good temp gauge. They just are not reliable as a a true indication of coolant temp. but can act as a "dummy" light if the engine starting to overheat.
 
I have a dimmer switch issue that causes my gauges to work but not read correctly. If the lights are on it reads high on everything. When there off it reads low on everything. As long as it runs I really dont care what they say.