Do it yourself if you are not all thumbs and can tell the difference between an adjustable wrench and a thumbscrew.

Here is why:

No dealer is going to go to the degree of care / trouble I am suggesting to fix this:

a) check for blown fuse -- if fuse looks good, put in another one or use an ohmmeter to verify it.

b) if you know which wire / pin is power pin on harness, check it for voltage with a probe of the wire.

Ditto at the connector --- check for power.

If not, it can be between the harness connection and fuse.

If you find nothing wrong, then:

i.e. remove connector

check and clean thoroughly with circuit cleaner spray (Radio Shack, electronics store).

Make sure there are no obvious bad connections, bad wiring, then reassemble the connector with dielectric grease.


Use check harness for power along its length (make sure you probe right wire!!!!


You now verified there is power in harness -- next:


If dash still doesn't light.. you have to do the hard part:




Disassemble dash, and clean / check the 2 connectors on top of the instrument cluster.


Blow out all dust / salt, etc. that may have shorted it.


Clean the 2 connectors and wiring harness connectors with circuit cleaner, grease with dielectric grease and reassemble.


Before you reassemble dash, test cluster again and see if you have power --- note my advice re replacing all bulbs at same time.


Pray that it is not the whole cluster that have blown out.

If it is.. you are in for a new cluster $$$$$


Cheap one is at junk yard.. then get dealer to reprogram.


Good luck.

 

It was a bad alternator...Apparently, when the system senses low voltage it starts shutting down stuff. The cluster being the first thing. The truck
ran for a day with no alternator before I started noticing a power loss though. Hope this helps anyone else with this fault.

Anyway, back to the originally scheduled program....

What type of oil should I use in my diesel. LOL

 

5w 40 100% synthetic all year round, unless you are doing super heavy duty towing.. then 15-40 in summers.

Glad you found the fault... I will add it to my fault chart...


When you swap alternators, note the post on here that says often, the batteries are either close to or are nearly dead at same time.

Test them under load individually, and if they are sub-par, replace BOTH.

I personally recommend 750 cca over 850 for more long term durability.


Was it the dealer that found the fault.. or did it become evident when the batteries died?


Interesting you did not get a battery warning light... it should have come on.

Note; check if you have a burnt out indicator bulb when it warms up in summer.... or if it is old enough.. replace all bulbs at same time.

 

It became pretty evident when the truck would hardly turn over..then just clicks. Got a jump and took it to a Chevy dealer that was close.

They were great. I know the service writer and a couple of techs there so they saved my butt. I had nothing else 4X4 that would get me home.

I didn't know the tech that worked on it but he was a ford guy at one time and was too cool. Kinda like Gearloose. <smile>

Thanks Gearloose for helping.

Hope this info helps someone else.

Gary

 

I had Daytime Running Lights on mine that just ate the battery enough to make it annoying if I did short trips.

So the DRLs got sent to the... also ran bin.

Glad things worked out.

Merry Christmas

 

Yea man, we cut it close though.

Thanks again

Gary