[Blas]

The water and oil temp gauges use a "Bulb" and tube filled with a gas to transmit temperature back to the gauge. Bending the brass tube to a tight radius can kink the tube and cause a leak. Your water temperature sensor is most likely in the front of the intake manifold on the top. It's surrounded by sparkplug wires most likely...if you were to have a spark jump from a wire to the brass tube, it will cause a small hole and the gas will leak out. Sometimes the gauge just reads low for a few days, and then dies, sometimes, it just dies straight off. The cheapest ans easiest way to remedy this is to replace the gauge. Yes, it can be fixed. but from a time and cost point of view, just replace it. Replacement is very simple; with a cold engine, you can just remove the bulb sensor end and not need to drain the cooling system. Don't loose the brass washer at the manifold connection. Use large radius bends in the brass tube when replacing the entire assembly. Everyone will replace these gauges in time. I've done one of each so far....old, period correct technology at it's finest...welcome to the wonderful world of Cobra Ownership...But jobs like this are how you learn about your car and how to work on it....enjoy !!!