the 'solid copper wire' is a capillary tube - they don't work if kinked and need a good clean connection at the sender end - sounds like you may have a bad one though - try putting the sender in a pan of very hot water and see what it does

Bill

Moved over to the Passing Lane

"When we tug a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world" ~ John Muir
"When we tug a single thing on an old truck, we find it falls off" ~ me
Some TF series details & TF heater pics