water temperature sender

[squeak]

John your description of the connections is exactly correct. I needed to connect to the "hot" terminals AFTER the  U bracket goes on, thus the insulators protect any stray current leakage. I had those nuts under the U bracket and the current diversion to ground caused full scale reading.
I have set everything with battery and stove etc, and the readings accord with my neighbours   cooking thermometer.
Now we're cooking!   thanks for the links which were very helpful