This is interesting, because I just got my ranger on friday, and the temp gauge is not reading. It's throwing the codes p1532, and p1437, one of them is for the temperature, I can't remember what the other one is for again. Anyways, upon looking under the hood I found a sensor hanging on the drivers side of the engine, it had been broken off. I can't really tell from the pictures, but does this sound like it's in the right location of the temp sensors? I'll try and take some pictures of it this afternoon.

__________________
2002 Ranger XLT 5spd 4x2 2.3 4cyl

Mods: shift knob (melted my girlfriends blowdryer in the process of removing stock knob lol)