Allright! Fast forward 3 months later today and finally got the parts direct from China.
The economy is slowly starting to roll again after this lock down with this new normal.
I was running my UTV with a shorted relay bypass so the fan was always on to prevent overheating.
It worked OK but was annoying.
Anyways, I proceeded to remove the PITA covers to get at the engine. What a chore that is including having to remove the drivers seat for better access. I started with what I thought would be the easy part which was replacing the radiator mounted thermo switch for the fan.
Nope! After I did the swap I suddenly realized that the connection was different.
Snip the wires and made a match.
Tested and works fine. The fan starts cycling at 80C
Next, my temp gauge was not working so tore into that looking at the ground side of the temp sensor.
Sure enough I was measuring 1.1K ohms. Way too much of a resistance to make that sensor work properly.
Took the housing apart and found corrosion on the bolts and the mating surface.
Shined everything up with emery paper and the gauge started working again.
Since this is a low mileage machine I decided to improve on the grounding aspect of that particular sensor.
I do not wish to have another repeat and feel this is a problem area and poor design.
So, utilizing a 1 inch gear clamp and a piece of 12 gauge wire I provided a secondary ground to the thermostat housing.
The engine ground bolt is conveniently located only 4 inches away so tied the other end right there.
I put a light coating of dielectric grease after I was done to repel water and resist corrosion.
I left a generous loop to absorb engine vibrations and all is good again.
At least now if the fan thermo switch fails I will get advance warning.