Those of you who installed Transmission Temp Gauges

[Jspafford]

So I bought a used cluster off e-bay. I wanted to retain my original cluster to I swapped over what I needed from the E-bay cluster into mine.

The cluster I bought has been rebuilt once already as it has the updated stepper motors and a tag from 2008ish where the re builder initialed it.

Anyway, It is winter I realize, but this thing NEVER moves off of 100. The warmest it's been in my area since I installed it was about 60 degrees. I've been on hour long freeway trips, stop and go traffic, and it's not moved.

Is it normal for it to not register when driving in the winter, or am I one of the few that it does not work for?

 

[jdpber]

Could be a couple things. 1 bad steeper, 2 bad trans pickup sensor, depending on year communication from computer to the dash will cause this issue.

 

[Jspafford]

Pretty sure I saw the needle move some when I plugged the cluster back into the truck.

The truck is a 2004 Z71

 

[OmarR]

The consensus is that there is a 50/50 chance your original cluster will work without needing programming. Some people swear no programming is needed and others report needing to send it out. I was fortunate to swap everything over and have everything work.

You could re-assembled the ebay cluster, with tranny temp stepper motor and gauge, throw that in your truck, and drive a while to see if the needle works with that cluster. Just transfer the fuel gauge motor/needle if needed. You will add some miles that wont register on your original cluster, but at least you will narrow down the problem.

As usual, make sure all solder connections are good.

 

[91RS]

You just swapped the stepper motor for the trans temperature gauge and the gauge face from the eBay cluster to your cluster, correct? It won't work like that. I tried it myself. It has to be programmed. Check with a few of the venders on eBay, you can send your cluster to them and they'll program it.

 

[OmarR]

You just swapped the stepper motor for the trans temperature gauge and the gauge face from the eBay cluster to your cluster, correct? It won't work like that.

It worked exactly like that for me. If you do a search on some of the different forums (GMfullsize, FSC, silveradoss, gm-trucks), you will find many that have done the swap successfully. You will also find some that have needed programming.

Again....it's 50/50 whether it will work or not.