1984 van over heat and alternator light on

A group of friends and I went camping with my son and his 1984 van 2wd in Soda Springs this weekend.
His temp gauge recently stopped working earlier this week. We did a ohm test on the sensor and it was open so we ordered one from Carquest, it did ohm but no response on the temp gauge. At the time we didn't think there was a cooling issue. On the way home on HWY 80 just before Roseville everything went crazy. The alternator light came on along with the parking brake light, the door is open light. and it began to loose power. When we got on the surface streets he could hear a clicking noise when he would accelerate. We went as far as we could until the battery died. Has this happened to any body else.
1. How can I test the Temperature gauge?
2. Is their a specific temp gauge sending unit or does any body know what it should ohm at?
3. I have read it here about the alternator harness going bad or something. What am I looking for?

Attachment 2000

Your problem is most likely alternator related. Use the search terms "Christmas dash" for help on that. Here's a recent thread regarding the temp gauge: http://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/s...-Gauge-Problem

Well things slowed down a little at the shop and we had a chance to look at the Van, so here is a update.
1.The temp gauge was unplugged, now works.
2.The clutch fan is bad but we have fluid coming and will rebuild it soon.
3.The electrical problem with the possible alternator failure was the fuse block became un mounted and shorted out on some metal.
4.Head gasket blown with small hole near cylinder.

My son and my 2 close friends diagnosed it yesterday.

Looking forward to fixing this and see how well it runs.:silvervan:

I am still searching for a superior up grade for fuel injectors on this. Have to match the flow for 36ms and 3ms along with low ohm. But a solution will present it's self.

I always thought our stock injectors were good. I've run several sets with more than 250k miles on them without issue. As an injector professional are you saying there's better injectors than Bosch & Denso? I think it's awesome you're searching and will be interested to see what you come up with. Tim

Those Denso injectors work great. But the injectors on the 4.0L Jeep Cherokee have different injectors but a similar spray pattern to the ones in our vans. With the jeeps 4.0L 5.2L and 5.9L we like to up grade to a set of injectors that atomize better . We replaced a set on my friends 5.2L in his Grand Cherokee. Better millage , throttle response and smoother idle. I then flow tested his stock injectors and they flowed to spec with no problems.
My other friend with a 1997 Cherokee swaped some in his and it cleaned up his idle and throttle response. Didn't test his old injectors.
So i am looking for an improvement. I have a lot of customers with the 84-87 22re in their trucks and 4runners and we have been looking for a improvement but they are very happy with how well their stock injectors perform after they have been cleaned.