temp gauge woes

I lost my temp gauge today. It is warm, the heater is alot hotter than less than 100 on the gauge, it is not overheated though.
Checked the quick stuff, coolant full, checked the bleeder, no air in system, sensor is hooked up.
Right now it is insanely cold outside; 25 degrees, but the wind is 50mph, no joke, so that is all I'm doing for right now. Have a dohc car in the garage with the head off, so It has garage priority right now, just looking for ideas at this point.

I used works shop after work. Replaced the temperature sender and thermostat. The new sensor was reading 55* on the scan tool sitting in the shop, so I think that was that problem, thermostat I don't know, anyway, the last time the draincock was put in the rad (before I had it), it was put in wrong, so I stripped it getting it out, the big zone can't even get it, so tommorow I'll check with the dealer and radiator shops around town. For now it is parked at work, I drove one of our service trucks home.

well, thank goodness the radiator was fine. Got a pet cock from napa, filled and bled the system and all works good.
I am always amazed how much a few degrees makes in vent temp.
I was running at 155 now 190 to 230 like I should, holy smokes the heater will run you out of dodge, can't hardly get it cool enough now. the gauge works fine too.
I checked with my scanner before, unhooked it read -40*, jumpered it read 300* so the wiring was fine, the sensor fixed it. The fans work right now too, I didn't have a dtc though, which is weird to me, the shouldn't have even been on at all before, the on temp is 230, so It shouldn't have been on at all...oh well, works fine now.