Symptoms of failed oil temp sensor

[bigpants]

Hi everyone. Just a quickie , my plugs are dry black sooty and pick up from tickover is bad. Wanted to check oil temp sensor before going into tps. Due to mods to the bike I can't get in behind the sensor with two bits of lockwire and a multimeter so any suggestions for an easy way to check it ?
Ta

[Vagrant]

don't be so bashful, tell us what you own!

[bigpants]

Blimey I can't believe I did that again - it's a Moto guzzi.
Silver one.
1100 sporti

[guzziart]

OK, I'm ignorant....What does pick up from tickover is bad mean?

[Wayne Orwig]

GuzziDiag.
Free.
Lets you look at ALL of the sensors with ease.


More likely to be the TPS.

[Kiwi_Roy]

Failing Guzzidiag you can measure it at the ECU connector, there is a chart in your workshop manual.
http://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzi007/schematics/1999_V11_sport.gif

[oldbike54]

OK, I'm ignorant....What does pick up from tickover is bad mean?

 Stumbles coming off idle , British terminology .

 Dusty

 

[bigpants]

I'm off grid here with no computer or electricity so diag no use . If I measure at ECU plug do I disconnect plug and just read a single resistance value with bike (and battery?) off ? And yes I have reasons to suspect TPS but just wanted to sort out a few unknowns before I go there..

[Brian UK]

If you look in the workshop manual you should see a table of resistance versus temperature for the sensor. So it's easy to check the resistance of the sensor with your multimeter and compare to the table.
I don't know the positioning of the sensor on that model, but in many cases there is a problem with the sensor being screwed into the socket, and there is a void inside, this means the sensor never heats up properly, so telling the ECU the engine is still cold, so you get a richer mixture. The solution in that situation is to add some copper grease or heat conducting compound to the socket before screwing the sensor in.

If it's running rich then the sensor will be telling the ECU that the engine is too cold, complete disconnection would give infinite resistance, but at ambient temperature, (engine cold) the resistance should be in the region of 10k ohms. The resistance drops as it gets warmer down to a few hundred ohms at working temperature.

[Kiwi_Roy]

As Brian says,
The plastic sensor mount on my VII eventually crumbled and fell out of the head.