My other truck is dead. Anyone have a thought about what is wrong with it?

[noland]

I have a 1987 Dodge W150 with a 318. I was driving and it just died and will not start. I also noticed that the gauges are not working, and the flashers and wipers do not work now. I checked the fuses and none are bad. I looked under the hood and don't see any broken wires anywhere.

What to look at next?

 

[Forrest]

Fuseable link maybe?



Will it crank over?

 

[noland]

Yes it will crank. It didn't have any fusible links that I saw, but that doesn't mean there are none. When I go back later to tow it home I will be able to give it a closer look.

 

[fkovalski]

More info please...

I am not familiar with this exact year. Is it carbureted? Can not remember if they used CCC or not. Do you have headlights? I am trying to figure out the corrolation between no accesories (guages, wipers etc... ) and the no start. Could it be two independent problems? I am thinking that you have an ignition problem which is the "no start" and a bad lead to your accy. side of the fuses. If it is straight carbureted, then I can't envision one affecting the other. I assume that fuel delivery is not the issue?

 

[noland]

It has a 2bbl carb. The carb bowl has gas in it and the accelerator pump squirts when the throttle is moved. The headlights and dome light work. It must have an electrical problem somewhere. The ingintion module may get power from the same source as the wipers? I don't know a lot about it.

I have had this truck for 14 years and this is the first time it has ever broken down.

When I get it home I will be able to give it a more thorough look.

 

[jrobinson2]

Check the ground wire from the negative cable to the core support, also my brothers 86 has lost 3 ignition pickup modules.

Jared

 

[Philip]

I am not sure if your truck has a old style bulkhead connector or a newer one like my 93 runs. So here goes.



The old style harness used bent wire clips to hold the plugs into the bulkhead connector.



The new version has a bolt holding everything together.



I have seen the older harness setup burn terminals out at the bulk head connector. You need to seperate the harness on the engine side of the firewall and look at the terminals to see if one of the large spade terminals is burnt off. The one most likely to burn was the power wire from the alt. This would kill most every thing in the truck.



You do have some fuse links to. One sould be out around the starter relay area. The others should be close to the battery.

 

[TowPro]

If I recall, There should be a fuseable link, It should be at the battery, or somewhere up at the firewall. Its been a while, but I think there is 2 wires (or more) coming the positive side of the battery. The heavy one supplies voltage to the starter, the thiner ones supply voltage to the rest of the truck, there may be a 3rd going to the alt. Make sure the one going to the truck is not open somewhere near the battery using a cheep test light.



If there is not a wire coming from the battery to the truck, then it comes off the starter. See if it did not burn off on the exhaust manifold.



Also there is a ballast resister near the center of the firewall. It has 3 or 4 wires going to it, its white porcelain looking thing with 1 3/8 bolt holding it on the firewall. These are known to go bad on a dodge. This will make it crank but not start.



Hope this helps some.

 

[Crazy Horse]

Towpro probably hit it.

"Also there is a ballast resister near the center of the firewall. It has 3 or 4 wires going to it, its white porcelain looking thing with 1 3/8 bolt holding it on the firewall. These are known to go bad on a dodge. This will make it crank but not start. "



You can temp bypass the resister with a jumper wire to see if it will start.

 

[Philip]

A bad ballast resister will not cause it to loose the wipers/ flashers and gages. The ballast resister is only used in the ing. circuit.

 

[RichB59]

Ballast

If the ballast is bad it will start with key held in start position and shut down when you release key but it won't effect anything else.



RichB

 

[JSmith]

If there is a bulk head on the firewall push the bulk head back to the firewall. Some Dodges had a bad connection here.

 

[jrobinson2]

I have also found a bad connection on the back of the ampmeter causing problems like this on a few older Dodge pickups. My brothers 86 has the newer bulkhead connector with the bolt in the center. The old style bulkhead connectors were junk.

Jared

 

[noland]

Thanks for all the good suggestions, but so far no luck.

Let me ask you guys a question since I am running out of things to check. Could the ignition switch cause this? I know it can kill the ingition (obviously), and the gauges do not ever work until the key is turned on, and I have no acc. power so I am thinking possibly the ignition switch but I want asecond opinion before I buy one.

 

[noland]

I think I may have answered my question. I also have no brake lights and I don't see what the ignition switch would have to do with them. I haven't checked the back of the ampmeter yet, so it is nex on the list, but it will probably have to wait until next week.

Thanks again to everyone.