coolant temp sensor question

Hello everyone

on my 87 b2000 My coolant sensor wire broke off. I looked and it has a single wire connection on it. Can someone show me or tell me how to connect it back up? looks like the wire just slips on with a but connector of sort but i am unsure.. NAPA tried selling me a 2 wire sensor so I don't know if mine was rigged or what.

too dark to get a pic tonight but can this weekend.. any help from someone would be great!! Thanks in advance

They are 1 wire ohm/resistance sensors that ground through the engine, which dirty or bad engine grounds sometimes causes the infamous "temp reading colder" rather than in the center of the gauge at operating temperature.

OK enough with the rant and back on topic...

Did it break at the connector or in the middle of the wire? Or did the sensor itself snap off?

The wire just needs to make a connection to the sensor.

The wire broke off from the sensor, does it just need to make contact on the tip or inside the tip? or is the tip in whole a conductor? Thanks for the quick reply.

No prob.

As long as there is a connection between the actual sensor and the wire it will work. If you have a soldering gun, try to pull the connector off the sensor and solder it back on. If not find a crimp on female connector that will securely fit onto the sensor and replace the factory one with that.

If you can post a pic it would help too.