Dead Dashboard

[littlejoe]

I've been out of town on business for a week. I get home, jump in my truck and turn the key and all my dash lights and gauges are dead. The truck starts and runs fine, but the dash is completely out. The only exception is the turn signal indicators that do work. I checked the fuse with an ohm meter and it's OK.

I left the truck at the airport in covered parking for a week. It was fine when I left it.

Any ideas?

[Banshee34]

Relay under the hood???? Mine was similar last year, except I had dash lighting but no speedo, turn signals or anything else and it was a relay, $ .80!

[mschn99]

is your throttle pedal dead as well??? and is your overdrive button working???

[littlejoe]

Throttle works fine (I dorve it home last night). I'm not sure if O/D is working. I just started it and pushed the button and nothing happened (it was in park though, but I don't think that matters).

[littlejoe]

A little more info. There are three related fuses: #4 - Power Point - instrument panel (20A); #35 - Instrument Cluster (10A) and #41 - Instrument Cluster (10A). I checked all three (OK) and went ahead and replaced them. Still no dash gauges. The tow/haul mode does not work, nor does the auto door lock feature.

HELP!!!!!!

[super_stroke]

hhhmmmmmmm marcus what say you about a gem module? sounds real close to mine last year, it was a combo of that and a short.

[mschn99]

check fuses 33,45 VERY closely, making sure they are contacting well in the fuse box as well...slightly tweek the blades apart so they are just a little spread out thus connecting better (bend them away side to side....none increase the gap between them) If this doesnt help we will go from there.....

[littlejoe]

OK, I checked all the fuses (#4, #35 & #41, as well as #33 and #45). I tweeked them all slightly to make sure they're making good contact.......still nothing.

Any more suggestions?

[littlejoe]

after further review.......fuse #45 was blown.......odd that it would run with the igintion/run fuse blown......oh well.......

[littlejoe]

I finally found the problem, thanks to the techs at my local dealer. I had my truck in there for an oil change and just wandered back into the service area to talk to them. When I told them what the problem is, they pointed me right at the culprit.

I found an itermittent short, caused by chafing, in the wiring harness for the tow/haul switch. You have to take of the steering column cover (which requires that you pull the ignition switch, not a big deal, you just need to know how). Where the harness comes out of the shifter column, it was rubbing on a sharp corner. It had rubbed through the shrink wrap on the harness, all the way though the insulator on one of the wires. I just cheaped out and wrapped it real good (the harness) with electrical tape. I also put three layers of tape over the sharp corner on the shift column. If I'm lucky, it won't happen again (I wrapped the harness about six times with tape, so it'll take quite a while to wear through).

If you need to remove the ignition switch, you have to put the key in and turn it to run (it's recommended that you disconnect the battery, although I did it with it still connected). There's a small hole in the bottom of the igintion switch with a lock pin in it. I used a small punch. Press on the pin and the switch slides right out. After I got the column cover off, I put the switch back in and turned the ignition off. Once the repair was done, I just repeated the steps to put everything back together.

Hope this helps.

I owe the guys at the dealership a couple of beers!