Yamae

Judging from your words "over the halfway when car is warmed up", the meter seems to be biased upward both when cold and warm. The important first step to troubleshoot would be to distinguish the reason why so. Is it biased mechanically or electrically? In case of a mechanical bias, the indication is just like the photo even when the key is not inserted. In case of a electrical bias, I'd check the loose connection first. If connections are OK, it will need to analyze the circuit deeply but it requires some good skills and measuring equipments.

Snakeplissken

my connections are good. My temp gauge worked fine before i took it apart. Now the needle for the temp gauge seems to almost touch the first dash on the cluster even with the Ect sensor uplugged. I tried to reposition back to its spot but still goes between that and the first dash. So now when the car is at its operating temp the needle is over the half way line when it should be a little below it. Ill try to get pictures tomorrow. If you know anything to recalibrate the gauges especially the temp let me know. There is a way to do the tach and rpm but i dont think its the same method with the temperature gauge

edit* when i first addressed the issue my temp gauge was totally dead touching the bottom of the instrument panel. This all happened when i first began to work on the odometer

Snakeplissken

Car on

Car off

Snakeplissken

Off again. Is this the normal resting point for this gauge. I would think it be on cold

CELSI0R

The normal resting position for the temperature needle is a little below the cold mark

The temperature and fuel gauge should not be touched when working on the cluster

For 90-92, the fuel gauge always rests in its last known position

Luckily, I have this photo from when I repaired my tachometer needle

Yamae

If I were you, I'd try to remove the connector from the ECT sensor and see what happens to the meter. After that I use a resistor 220 ohms instead of a sensor and see how much the needle goes up. These 2 results will be leading me to decide what to do next.

Snakeplissken

i must of accidentally touched it working on the cluster bc when the problem first happened its when i put my cluster back together trying to fix my odometer and noticed that the temp gauge was limp all the way at the bottom non working. Then i fixed it and it got stuck once the cat warmed up. Has been giving me issues since. Really annoying to tell u the truth bc my cluster is close to perfect. How do u recalibrate it?

Snakeplissken

i have disconnected it and it drops to first dash. If i plug in and attach a ground to it it will go all the way up but still drop to first dash if im lucky. I went ahead and ordered a new odometer btw

Snakeplissken

if i had to guess mine needs recalibrated. I also read up that these needles need oiled sometimes? Is that true?

CELSI0R

1st gen needles shouldn't be oiled. I think that's only a 2nd gen design where there is a fluid for the needles

No idea on how to recalibrate it, sorry.. if it moves easily, maybe move it to the max position and then back to min, plug it in, and give it a shot. Not sure if that will work