no, the ecu sensor works differently. make sure the connector pins in your temp sensor aren't folding over when you plug it in. not that? get your hands on a digital volt-ohm meter, the needle type will work for this but in the long run you'll get more use from a digital (must use a low impedance digital meter when working with ecm stuff). set it to low (50 or less) Ohms scale. hook one meter lead to the female lead in the harness connector for the temp sender, hook the other lead to the wire going in at the gage. if the meter reads off the scale, out of limits, "o-l", infinite, the wire is broken ("open") somewhere. You may be able to find the location of the open by piercing the wire in locations between the gage and the sender, just recheck the resistance from either end to the piercing point.
You should also be able ground the sender connector to the engine block with the key on. If the gage and wire are good the gage will peg hot.
