| Author |
Message |
Shawn Bennear (Lilneoplan)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 5:44 am: | |
I was working on my dash cluster the other day, and I was attempting to find out why 3 gauges dont work.
I was feeling wires and I burnt my finger on a 24 volt positive wire takeoff post, it was so HOT.
I am pretty sure that should not have happened, and my guess is a ground issue...
anyone else have thoughts?
the speedo quit, the water temp quit, and the fuel gauge is pegged on E.
it seems as though all the grounds terminate at the dash cluster itself. There possibly may be a wire from the big jumble in the harness...
thanks again!
shawn |
John MC9
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 8:17 am: | |
What ever happened with your bulb problem, Shawn? You left
a lot of people hanging onto that thread. |
Tim Strommen (Tim_strommen)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 2:31 pm: | |
Something that passes electrical current other than a resistor or a heater that gets hot is a fire hazard.
I'd start by pulling fuses/breakers until the power draw goes down - then trace out the circuit that's doing the power draw and find out why. Even better – make sure there actually are fuses/breakers on the circuits immediately off the power post (all wire size reductions should be fused/breakered within about 8” of the size change to protect the thinner wire from the currents available via the larger wire).
People can easily become complacent with low voltages thinking they are always safe - but in reality, low voltages can do as much if not more damage when overloaded compared to HV-A/C.
Cheers!
-Tim |
John MC9
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 9:57 pm: | |
I'm kinda' curious to know if that problem went away with the
marker light problem? Prolly not, huh? Oh well... one can wish..
OK..
Removing all the wires and cleaning any corrosion from the
connections, would be ideal. If there's any corrosion between
two of the connected wires, the others on that post will also
be affected, and generate heat (lotta' heat). A loose connector
on the end of one wire, can generate enough heat to heat the
entire post... Especially if it's the feed to the rest!
I always tried to center my attention to the item showing the
symptom first, before digging through other things and finding
problems that may have never existed prior to my digging...
The post is hot, check everything on that post first. |
Shawn Bennear (Lilneoplan)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 10:07 pm: | |
yeah, I just posted back there... It was a pinched wire...
shawn |
John MC9
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 10:15 pm: | |
(I meant, that I hoped it fixed this problem as well, at the same time!)
(HAR.... maybe win the lottery too, huh?) |
Doug G
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 10:35 pm: | |
Check for corroded grounding connections in the electrical bay. Been there done that. |
John Jewett (Jayjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 10:59 pm: | |
Bad grounds can generate heat, but seldom enough to burn your fingers...I'd look for a short-i.e. a hot wire grounded against the guage post. First you'll need to determine if the 'hot' post was a positive or negative terminal. If a positive, them the problem is most likely a poor system ground. If it is a negative then a short has probably occured either at the terminal, or nearby. ...JJ |
Shawn Bennear (Lilneoplan)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 5:44 am: | |
Could one of the gauges itself possibly be shorted? The temp gauge hasn't worked since the day I got the bus.
The fuel and speedo went out pretty close to the same time.
The fuel gauge sits at 1/4 with the master switch off. When you turn it on, it pegs to the "E" and dont move from there.
The speedometer, which is a motorola electronic unit, did work, then started working intermittently, then now not at all.
Needless to say, I am stumped...
Thanks as always
Shawn |
Jack Conrad (Jackconrad)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 04, 2006 - 6:44 am: | |
Your speedo sounds like the problem we had with our MC-8. On our bus, the speedo problem turned out to be a bag sender on the front wheel. Check with Precision Speed in Arizona 800-873-1055. They walked me through testing the speedo. You need 12 (or 24) volts at the speedo when master switch is on and the sender creates a small voltage that varies with speed. I connected 2 volt meters (1 to monitor bus voltage and the other to monitor voltage fron the sender).
For the other gauges, my first question is "Do you have the wiring schematic for the gauges?" If not you need to get it. Find which terminal on the front panel is the sender for each gauge. Disconnect the senders at this terminal.Turn on the master switch and check for voltage at each gauge (ground your meter at the gauge to confirm the gauge is grounded. If no voltage, look at the schematic to find power source, check that beraker and work your way to the gauge checking terminals as you go. Also check ALL ground connections. If you have power and a good ground at the gauge, ground the sender terminal and you shoiuld get a needle deflection. If this happens, the problem is in your sender or sender wiring. If not, you have a problem with your gauge. Hope this helps, Jack |