Archived Truck Dead

[jweir]

Drove into the garage tonight and the truck died and the gauges all went dead. I have inside cab lights and headlights, but no gauges and no start. I am in the process of checking fuses, but so far none bad. Any thoughts or insights would be greatly appreciated.





Jim

 

[Lurch]

Sounds like ignition switch/wiring. Since you have no switched power.



Lurch

 

[jandu]

I had the same thing happpen to me. There is a plug under the steering column cover that pulled loose when I raised the tilt steering to the upper limits. It kills everything that the steering wheel and column controls. It sounds like this could be your problem.

 

[WadePatton]

I always start by checking battery voltage with DVOM. Some computer systems shut down below x voltage.



But what they said sounds good.

 

[illflem]

Don't forget the fuses and links under the hood.

 

[rrausch]

Try placing the tilt steering wheel in the middle position and see if it works again. Mine did this for about a month until I had the time to pull the piece of black plastic under the steering wheel and fix the wire ends. There is a plug under there that has about 7 wires going into and out of it. 4 of them were either corroded or broken on mine I redid almost all of them. Works great now!

 

[Missouri Mule]

I think the other are right on target. Ignition wiring ,check for broken wires/ loose connections/connector, fuses in fuse box and pdc.

 

[jweir]

jandu and rrausch,



THANK YOU!!!!! I put the wheel down and it worked!! Now tomorrow I will take off the covers and see what is the problem with the wires. Thank you all for your replies and helping me find the problem, I will certainly sleep better tonight



It sure is great to have all this knowledge here and people with the willingness to share it and help others! Hopefully I can help you guys some day!



illflem, are we cursed with fusable links in our trucks?? Never did like those things...



WadePatton, I'm with you, that was one of the first things I did.





Thanks again,



Jim

 

[rrausch]

When you pull it, it will probably be the red wire. It's a 12 guage, I think, I just lengthened it with about 6 inches of similar wire. There is a thin plastic "lock" on the plug. Pull the lock out and you can get to the female ends of the wires and remove them. It's a pretty easy job. Let us know how it goes!

 

[jweir]

Thanks rrausch for the advice. I will probably look at it tomorrow and see about fixing it.



Jim