hey my thermostat went out the other day and i just replaced it and gasket but the gauge on my cluster isnt picking up any temp from the engine. gauge stays below 100 degrees regardless of how long the engine runs. new thermostat works i tested it before i put it in. any ideas?

 

First of all, the thermostat has nothing to do with the gage. You may have a bad wire between the gage sending unit, or a bad sending unit, or a bad gage.

 

is there an easy way to figure out which of those it is that wont cost me a arm and a leg

 

Disconnect the wire from the sending unit and short it to ground. If the wiring and gage are good the gage should max out, indicating that probably the sender is bad. If nothing happens the gage or wiring or both are bad, indicates that the sender is probably OK. Make sure you play with the temp gage sending unit and not the coolant temp sensor used by the ECM.