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temp gauges not working/intermentent
The water,trans and rearend temp gauges on my last trip began to work sometimes and then drop to zero for awhile before returning back to the normal range. This happened once before on my trip home after I purchased the coach but then “resolved itself” after that. I suspect a bad ground on the engine/trans to chassis. My problem is I cannot find a ground from the chassis to the engine anywhere except the ground to the starter. The chassis batteries had just been replaced when I bought the coach and the ground could have been left off? My train of thought is the ground is the only thing common to these sending units. The oil pressure gauge works correctly, however it is mounted on the chassis. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
MMM
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7 Replies
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I vote with your analysis. The ground seems to be the only thing common to all three.
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I would suspect a ground also, probably between the instruments themselves and their ground point. You’ll probably find they are all ground wired together to a common point somewhere behind the dash.
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What DDEC do you have DDEC 2 or is it a DDEC 3
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It is likely DDEC II.
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Jon when my DDEC 3 went bad it caused the gauges to do funny things the battery inside it was dead could that be the problem?
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Don’t know. Ken? What do you think?
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I suspect it is a DDEC ll since the chassis is a 1993. How do you determine what it is ?
I first thought the guages were not properly grounded and removed the dash to check. All are tied to the same ground and appear to be good . (tested with a multimeter) Also, the dash lights use the same ground and they do not go out when the guages go to zero. The turbo boost, pyrometer and oil pressure gauages work fine. Oil pressure sending unit is mounted on the engine bulkhead ,thus grounded directly to the chassis. This is what made me suspect that the engine was not grounded properly or at all. I looked at my neighbors 1996 Prevost Vantare XLV and it has a ground cable from the main ground lug (welded to the chassis next the batteries) going to the engine block near the bell housing. Mine has a cable to the starter only. I am installing a cable from the ground lug to the engine block to see what happens. I figure it won’t hurt anything and will either fix the problem or kill my theory and I’ll have to start over.
Won’t be able to test it until the next trip since the problem is intermentent. Sure hope it fixes the problem as I really don’t like driving it not knowing what the temps are. Thanks for all the input. This site is the greatest thing since apple pie for us “Newbies”.
Michael
PS: Thanks Jon for your article on the Level Low system. Had problem with the front not wanting to lower and was able to troubleshoot using your article to resolve the problem. I now have that printed off and in the Coach for future reference.
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