CapnRam

Was on my first elk hunt of the year this weekend and all the sudden i have got issues!.. Heres what happened...

1. Goin down the road and all the sudden my seat belt light comes on the dash (no i wasnt wearing it) so put it on and it wont go out....

2. I'm towing my 5th wheel and we stop at this area, then take off and it wont hardly move, i look dwn to see the the trailer brake controller is power up like i'm stepping on the brakes, but i'm not, i have to turn the pwr all the way down to take off....

3. Unhook the trailer and notice my brake lights are on!! So kinda dink around with it and happen to turn my lights off and all the sudden the brake lights go off..

4. Goin down the road later that night, the dome light comes on all by itsself and now the seat belt light goes off?? Have to pull the bulb to kill it..... next day put it back in and everything is fine..??

5. When the lights are on, left blinker is fine but when i go to right i get a solid green arrow on the dash..turn the lights off and everything works fine??

I know there has been issues with the light switches in these trucks..does this sound like whats goin on.. of course the dealer is out of it right now.. should i just get the switch and put it in and see what happens? Anyone else have anything like this? Thanks for any info....

Capn...

01trailerpuller

Try resetting your ECU by unplugging your batteries for an hour+. Sometime the second gen get an error code in them and they kind of go nuts. This should help BUT before you do that do the quick code check by turning your key to on(without turning it on) then off three times leave it on the the third. Watch your odometer and see if any codes pop up.

Silver_Ram

Check all of your battery connections, grounds and possibly if the this going on, pull the instrument cluster out & put back in. I kept having stupid little things like you describe & I pulled the instrument cluster out, put it back & tightened the screws. Worked for me anyway.

Also check the wiring harness connections & make sure they are plugged in & tight.

Steve Roseman

My guess would be a bad body ground. If none of that works I'd be looking for a Catholic priest to do an exorcism.

Russ Roth

'99's won't do that.

rebal

It might be your brake controller! I had the exact same thing happen to my 99 ford SD I hunted that thing for weeks until i discovered it by accident one night . it seemed to back feed through the electrical system even shorted out the whole dash before I discovered it. might be worth looking at as a possible cause

01trailerpuller

Thanks. I thought that the 98.5 and up could do that. Which year did they start the key check?

91r/t

00 I believe...correct me if im wrong guys

PaulDaisy

I would have thought, bad ground too.
Of course it could be also the punishment for the sacrilege of going elk hunting in the comfort of a fiver

CapnRam

Well i talked to the dealer and they said it sounded like the headlight switch..so went and got a new one and same thing?? As for the brake controller, why would this only do it when my lights are on? IF my lights are off the brake lights are not on and the controller works the way it should..i have a 79 gmc and if a bulb goes out the blinker will stay solid to let you know..well thats what this does for the right blinker only when the lights are on.. when the lights are off both blinkers and brake lights work normally? Of course we're expecting like 6" of snow today and i dont have a garage big enough to get big red into...soooo? Still wondering.. its like something on the light side is feeding the brake side... and i'll tell you electical is my nightmare.. i dont even know how to start troubleshooting this...grrrrr.. i'll try unhooking the bats and look for grounds but i dont think its anything there considering everything goes to crap when i turn my lights ON?? THanks for the info..

Capn

Steve Roseman

Ground problems can do all sorts of strange things. I'm really thinking you have a bad body ground. When your headlights are off your other lighting is probably finding a path to ground through the headlights somehow. When you turn on the headlights you are denying something a path to ground. Easy way to check is hook a jumper cable to the ground side of the battery only then the other black lead to a good clean part on the body.
I bought a car real cheap once because the car would die when you kicked on the brights. Vice gripped a new body ground on it and drove it home with the brights on.

CapnRam

when the weather clears up a bit i'll give that a try..thanks..

funcruise

It might be a bit of a reach but is it possible that you have a bulb with the two elements touching one another and when the lights are on one side feeds back through the other like the tail or parking lites. I came across that once years ago after hunting for hours....

CapnRam

I was thinkin something in the light bulbs, especially since the right arrow just stays on when i turn that blinker on with the lights on, but if my lights are off they work just fine, and when the lights are on its on the dimmer side for the running light? Weather looks better today, will try and get out and figure something out??? Thanks for all the info..

capn

Steve Roseman

Another body ground situation I ran into with a 74 Power Wagon. Nice truck, 440, 4 speed, 4.10 gears. Anyway, enough with reminiscing.
Truck would backfire whenever I would shift. When running headlights the manual choke cable would get extremely hot. One afternoon the truck died on me and I couldn't figure it out. Tried changing a bunch of different parts to no avail.
Previous owner had the ground wire from the radiator support electrical taped to the ground cable so I thought I would check there for corrosion. Pulled off the tape and found he had never even stripped the insulation! Got it hooked up right and no problems.