Ok so my water temp gauge does not work when I turn my car on about 5 secs after the needle just goes straight to hot. Its done this since I bought it. The car doesn't over heat its just the guage from what Im told since the guy I bought it from said he replaced the sensor so he says. So what Im asking is if I can replace my stock one with this one and just take the needle off my gas gauge and stick it in the new one and it work properly. Let me know what you think.

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Also would it just be easyer to buy a aftermarket water temp gauge or a whole new instument cluster panel.

 

well before you go throwing parts at the car; go to the temp sensor, single wire distributor side of head, and unplug the connector then see what the gauge does when you turn the key on.
Also check the wiring because if that wire is grounded anywhere it will cause the gauge to go all the way up.

 

I unplugged the wire and the needle just sits at the bottom. I didn't see anything wrong with the wire. So what does that mean

 

Seems like it means a bad sender. IF the wire were shorted to ground, the gauge would stay high when you unplugged the sender.

But the shop manual warns, that if you short the sender wire, you should NOT allow it to peg the gauge at the high-end of the scale. It suggests that will damage the gauge.

Maybe the past owner got the wrong sender?
Maybe he shorted the wire & damaged the gauge?

A 1998 shop manual would say what resistance the sender is supposed to have at several different temperatures.

 

ok so Ive confirmed that the gauge is bad I put in another gauge cluster of my buddys and its worked fine. So Im wanting to know how hard it will be to install that new water and gas gauge to my old gauge cluster. Any help would be great.

 

It looks like the cluster can be disassembled from the parts diagram. My 95 is similar, and from what I remember, it wasn't too hard to take it apart. You can download a 98-02 shop manual from the online manuals link in the DIY section. That should help you out.

Be careful not to damage the gauge needles when you take it apart.