1st Gen. Ram - All Topics Discussion for all Dodge Rams prior to 1994. This includes engine, drivetrain and non-drivetrain discussions. Anything prior to 1994 should go in here.

electrical issue?

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Old Jul 8, 2010 | 11:41 AM
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mega_man's Avatar
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From: Redmond, OR
electrical issue?

In the last few days the weather here has been getting warmer and warmer. Today I think that we are supposed to reach the high nineties. The reason I mention the weather is because it is the only thing that comes to mind as the cause of my issue.

OK, when I drive my truck to work in the morning everything works as it should. When I get in my truck to go home (truck has been sitting for 9-10hrs) she fires right up but my gauges are acting weird. By weird I mean the engine temp and fuel are both reading higher then they actually are. When I use the turn signal the engine temp and battery both oscillate back and forth and when I am driving the speedo drops off completely. When I use the turn signal both flashers come on and when I use the high beams both signal flashers come on.

Here is a video of what I am talking about.


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Old Jul 8, 2010 | 01:19 PM
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From: Fort Riley, kansas
i would start by checking the main body ground to the battry off the core support. If that is all good check the gounds in the cab. It does look like a ground issue to me. Hope this helps man.
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Old Jul 12, 2010 | 08:58 PM
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From: Redmond, OR
so now my right turn signal is always on. I pulled out the turn signal relay just to get it to stop but now I don't have any signals. I traced all the grounds and everything looks good. Is there a chance I have a faulty relay? I am going to buy one tomorrow to see if that fixes it. It is strange that only the left turn signal is going on.
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Old Jul 12, 2010 | 09:07 PM
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From: Southern New Jersey
My truck lit a turn signal indicator like that when I had a bad bulb in the front. Does it only light when the parking lights are on? When the speedo quits do you also loose overdrive?
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Old Jul 12, 2010 | 09:30 PM
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From: Redmond, OR
Originally Posted by Onemoparnut
My truck lit a turn signal indicator like that when I had a bad bulb in the front. Does it only light when the parking lights are on? When the speedo quits do you also loose overdrive?
The turn signal is always on. Even if the truck is off the signal is on. I do not loose overdrive when I loose the speedo.
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Old Jul 12, 2010 | 10:02 PM
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From: Minnesota
The hazards are meant to work whether the key is in or not, so my guess would be either the hazard switch or the turn signal switch.

I had problems with my turn signals that turned out to be the contacts in the signal switch being so gunked up that they weren't working properly. I disassembled and cleaned it as much as possible and that fixed everything.

The gauge thing might be a bad ground... I disassembled my dash and on putting it back together it behaved oddly. I think it's Jim Lane that has a thing in the sticky about soldering a separate ground wire on the cluster's PCB - that fixed my problems.
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Old Jul 12, 2010 | 10:24 PM
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From: Calgary, Alberta
Two areas to look at:

Pull the shrouding off the steering column and check for bare wires in the area where the tilt column flexes, at the signal light switch. Tilt the column up & down several times and see if that corrects or changes the problem.

Have a look inside your trailer connector and inspect all its wiring and connections. The 6 and 7 pin connectors can fill up with mud in the back where all the wires hook up, and in high humidity the mud becomes a fairly good conductor.
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