Guys... I have a 71 SBC that I pulled the motor out to do so serious engine bay restoration on. With that I purchased some Hooker Comps and new wiring harnesses. According to my assembly manual the Temp sending unit is supposed to be on the drivers side. Before I started this project (and when I bought the car the temp sending unit was on the pass side). I wanted to make it right and to top things off the plug in the hole on the drivers side was all striped out so I had to drilled and chisel it out. Once I got it all done, put the headers on and went to connect the wiring to the sending unit it wouldn't fit. The connector sits on the forward most pipe no matter how I rotate the sending unit. Has anyone else run into this? I really don't want to put it back on the passenger side as this would mean I have to splice into the new wiring harness I just bought. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Pat

which style of connector is on the sender?
if it's the single flat blade, then bend it over a little bit to clear the pipe.

Thanks Derrick... It's actually the dual connector. However I started looking into just what you're talking about. In looking at the wiring diagram it looks like one of the two wires goes back to the TCS relay. The TCS stuff in my car has been totally removed. Can I simply switch to a single blade sending unit, disconnect the wire that goes to the TCS, and just use the one dark green wire to connect?

figure out which wire goes to the light or gauge, and just wire that to a single wire sending unit.
idiot light switch:
http://partimages.genpt.com/partimages/502038.jpg

gauge sending unit:
http://partimages.genpt.com/partimages/496559.jpg

either way, you shouldn't have to butcher the harness. use a smal lflat blade screwdriver to release the terminal from the connector and find a car with the proper connector in the junkyard.

Sounds great. I went back and looked again and I actually do still have the 2 TCS relays that mount to the firewall under the wiring harness channel. Don't think that matters but I believe I should still be able to safely disconnect that one wire that goes from the sending unit to the TCS relay, right?

Thanks Derrick... It's actually the dual connector. However I started looking into just what you're talking about. In looking at the wiring diagram it looks like one of the two wires goes back to the TCS relay. The TCS stuff in my car has been totally removed. Can I simply switch to a single blade sending unit, disconnect the wire that goes to the TCS, and just use the one dark green wire to connect?

Yes, you can switch to a single terminal sender.
Also, I cured this problem (the wire/connector will STILL be close to the header tube and may become heat damaged) by installing the sender in the intake manifold. Of course, not all intake manifolds will have an additional available hole for a sender. :thumbsup: