Hello, wondering if you guys can help me out, I have a 89 dodge caravan turbo 5 spd base model, no power options, van runs awesome, when driving during the day everything works perfect, when you turn the lights on gas gauge goes full, volts go dead, tach dont read properly and the oil pressure gauge reads low and volts go dead, and both blinker lights come on as if the bulbs were blown. I've changed the headlight switch, ignition switch and all the fuses are good. I was wondering if any input you guys have would be appreciated. thnks
Brock Landers
Well, I don't know if this will help or not, but I had a 96 Dakota that did a similar thing. I had to take the guage cluster out and make sure all the 'plugs' were secure on the back, then re-install. I'd have to do it every few months. There is probably a way of making the connections more secure but I'm not sure what it is. That might help.
PS: if you ever want to sell the van please let me know. That is one of the cars on my list of desired cars!! Thanks!
PS: if you ever want to sell the van please let me know. That is one of the cars on my list of desired cars!! Thanks!
All of the symptoms you describe sound like a ground issue.
First thing to do is verify with a voltmeter or test lamp that ALL fuses have power in and out so you can rule out a stray voltage issue.
If OK you will need to verify all interior body grounds have continuity to ground.
The BK wires at the Headlamp Switch Connector and at the Instrument Cluster Connector #1 are both Ground wires.
Use an Ohmmeter to verify both have Continuity to ground.(less than 5 ohms)
First thing to do is verify with a voltmeter or test lamp that ALL fuses have power in and out so you can rule out a stray voltage issue.
If OK you will need to verify all interior body grounds have continuity to ground.
The BK wires at the Headlamp Switch Connector and at the Instrument Cluster Connector #1 are both Ground wires.
Use an Ohmmeter to verify both have Continuity to ground.(less than 5 ohms)
Off the top of my head no and the wiring I have does not give me ground locations.
There is usually a ground wire behind the L/S kick panel, is that a correct location on an 89 Caravan?
Like I said, start with the fuses.
A blown fuse will cause voltage to look for an alternate path to ground and if it finds one other components will be powered even if only slightly/sporadically.
The reason I stress this to people is that even though 99.9% of the time a blown fuse will only cause a circuit to be inop/not powered I wasted a lot of time and effort years ago looking for a dome light that would not tun off in a Jeep.
It turned out the Dome Lamp fuse was blown, the voltage found another way to ground through the dome lamp circuit and the lamp stayed powered all of the time.
There is usually a ground wire behind the L/S kick panel, is that a correct location on an 89 Caravan?
Like I said, start with the fuses.
A blown fuse will cause voltage to look for an alternate path to ground and if it finds one other components will be powered even if only slightly/sporadically.
The reason I stress this to people is that even though 99.9% of the time a blown fuse will only cause a circuit to be inop/not powered I wasted a lot of time and effort years ago looking for a dome light that would not tun off in a Jeep.
It turned out the Dome Lamp fuse was blown, the voltage found another way to ground through the dome lamp circuit and the lamp stayed powered all of the time.
It also dawned on me today that another member had a similar issue to yours awhile back and that issue turned out to be a shorted headlamp switch.
If you do not find anything you may want to try a known good headlamp switch to see if that corrects the issue.
If you do not find anything you may want to try a known good headlamp switch to see if that corrects the issue.
I was having an issue like this in my Acclaim.
Mine ended up being a fried instrument cluster. Installed a different cluster, solved the issues.
Mine ended up being a fried instrument cluster. Installed a different cluster, solved the issues.
I have an 87' voyager and the cluster ground is under the kick panel like NAJ said. It's kind of hard to get to.
If you end up taking the cluster out, solder ALL the pins to the board. This could save you a lot of headaches in the future. The pins are just crimped from the factory and they tend to lose their connection. Soldering them solves that problem.
If you end up taking the cluster out, solder ALL the pins to the board. This could save you a lot of headaches in the future. The pins are just crimped from the factory and they tend to lose their connection. Soldering them solves that problem.
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
