[odb138]

Friday morning the hydraulic pump shorted on my snow plow and wreaked havoc on my battery. The post for the positive terminal broke off and all the lead surrounding it actually melted and dripped everywhere. Got a new battery and everything is working fine.

The only thing not working is the temp gauge on the dash. When I turn over the engine to start it spikes all the way up, but immediately drops to zero and never moves after that, regardless of temperature.

i replaced the coolant temp. sensor. if i disconnect the tcs while truck is running the check engine light comes on so there is a signal going to the sensor... Somoeone mentioned a "coolant temperature SWITCH" - but i can't find any info about that, or if it really exists. I"d rather have a temperature gauge so I want to fix this. Short of replacing the instrument cluster, I'm out of ideas. Any advice?

 

[homer911]

run a jumper wire between the pins on the coolent temp sender. That will make it peg out and let u know that the dash is working also.

 

[unplugged]

Coolant temperature sensor is located in the intake manifold near the tstat housing. The coolant temperature switch is located on the drivers side cylinder head near the front between the exhaust ports.

Check the block to chassis ground cables. Should be between the block and frame. You can use a jumper cable to test the connection/gauge.

 

[odb138]

Electricals on the fritzzzz

Yikes, this problem has gotten worse. Now the headlights are funky and the instrument cluster is more messed up than ever. If i turn on the lights I'm usually ok. If i turn on the heater it shorts out and i lose my gauges. Same story with the 4wd. I drop the T-Case into 4hi and everything dims and it wont engage.

This problem is intermittent, however and from time to time the 4x4 will engage. The Speedometer/Odometer come and go but the fuel gauge, & temp gauge never work.

I'm lost. Someone mentioned an alternator problem, and I'm not sure what you mean by the chassis ground cable.. Can you explain what that means?

 

[tbplus10]

The Battery's negative terminal is connected to the Frame and engine block (with a lead going to the starter).
There should be smaller ground wires running between the body and the frame, and the body and the engine block.
Use a jumper cable to check the connection to each of these points to determine if the ground wires have been compromised.
Check the Battery to engine block first.
Then battery to frame.
Then engine block to body.
Finally frame to body.
The engine block to body and frame to body should be performed last if you have bad grounds at the other points and you hook a good ground through the body when you turn on the juice you could possibly melt the ground point on the body because of the thin sheet metal.