Posted by Gordon on Monday, March 04, 2002 at 2:09PM :
In Reply to: Re: Temp Gauge Coolant Leak posted by Chris in Penn Valley on Monday, March 04, 2002 at 1:27PM :
It's REALLY easy to break these things.
The common fitment is to have a tapered nut screwed into the head casting, with a non-tapered thread up the middle of it. The sensor bulb goes through this, and is clamped into the head by another hollow nut with a parallel thread on the outside of it.
So you have three leak paths to check.
1. Between the big, outer nut and the head.
2. Between the big and little nuts.
3. Between the little nut and the back of the sensor face.
It would pay you to find out which one is leaking before you go any further. If you try and turn out the bigger nut with the little nut still locked you will be twisting the sender tube and turning the sensor inside the head - not good.
You SHOULD be able to back off the smaller, inside nut either without turning the tube or turning it as little as possible, then clean up all the faces and re-install but don't torque it too tight or it'll snap. It's unlikely it'll seal if you tighten it just as it is.
Of course the minute you loosen something all the coolant will want to drain down to that level too.
Gordon
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