Instruments Dead

[Belgique]

2001 Itasca 35U, Ford V10. In another post I whined about a very rough construction road that shook everything real bad at only 5mph.

Well, it killed my instruments too! NOTHING on the panel works: tach, speedometer, gas, amps, temp, even odometer. Electric window, radio, turn signals do work. Coach runs fine.

I looked for a circuit breaker for instrument cluster but did not see one. Must be electrical issue (but did not know that odometer and speedometer was electrical...it's the old analog type).

Anyone have a suggestion as to where to look.

Thanks in advance. Steve

[Belgique]

2001 Itasca 35U, Ford V10. In another post I whined about a very rough construction road that shook everything real bad at only 5mph.

Well, it killed my instruments too! NOTHING on the panel works: tach, speedometer, gas, amps, temp, even odometer. Electric window, radio, turn signals do work. Coach runs fine.

I looked for a circuit breaker for instrument cluster but did not see one. Must be electrical issue (but did not know that odometer and speedometer was electrical...it's the old analog type).

Anyone have a suggestion as to where to look.

Thanks in advance. Steve

[rgrstndgby]

Steve, I'd say that the first look should be for a bad ground. I am not at all familiar with your Ford, but it sounds like you may have had the "ground" between the IP and the chassis fail. Also, if there is a main electrical harness connection to the IP you should check that to see if that is firmly connected too. The rough road could have shaken these loose...rgr...

[Phelpo]

10-4 on the ground, try and jump a ground wire to
a ground, making a new ground and see if that works.

Let us know.

Phelpo

[tccain]

My 2000 Bounder also has a dead instrument cluster. Were you able to fix yours? If so what was the solution?

Tom Cain
2000 34T Bounder
2004 CRV

[ichn2go]

I would check not only the ground wire, but any wire that could have shook loose...Good miles

[Belgique]

My bad! I thought I had posted a follow-up...I usually do.

There are 2 fuse panels near the brake pedal...I had not seen the one over the one with the push button circuit breaker type fuses. It was in the shop for something else and the tech just looked there and replaced a fuse. He commented that the bad thing about this was that kill your brake booster too.

Why it blew? Don't know. Put another 1000 miles since with no problem. This all happened right after going over the worst road possible where cabinets opened and dumped so maybe it just shook loose?

Again for no follow-up...It's been helpful to me when folks told the "rest of the story." Steve

[LVJ58]

Steve, have you done anything to soften up your ride? We had the same problem with our 2000 38' rig on the F53, changed the front shocks out to the Monroe HD Gas Magnum RV shocks made a world of difference. After weighing our coach, I then checked the tire pressure load range chart and found I could safely reduce air pressure to 70psi, that also helped smooth up the ride considerably. Just a suggestion if you haven't done it already.

Good Luck, Jim

[tccain]

I do not think a fuse is my problem. It is intermittant. Will work sometimes and then quit while driving and may start again. Then at times it will not work at all. Will check the ground. I have checked the connectors and all are tight. Even disconnected them and reinserted them. The problem is that I do not know which wire in the harness is the ground wire. I can try connecting a ground to different places behind the instrument cluster. Maybe this will work.

Tom Cain
2000 34T Bounder
2004 CRV

[Belgique]

Jim, I have to do what you suggest but this incident was unusual. The town of Beaufort had torn up the main road more than before in the final stages of repaving and sewer replacement...added to this was that the coach was empty since we were going to leave it with the dealer for a week or so...I think that made the real difference since the coach was very light. A tank could not have gone over this without the same effect...the road should have been closed to all traffic. At about 3 MPH every cabinet opened and dumped stuff...we've had about 5000 miles, over some rough roads, but this never happened, before or since.

Normally, the ride is very smooth but I still want to do what you suggested. Steve

[LVJ58]

Hi Steve, I completely understand, been over some of those types of roads and have taken some horiffic pounding. Those Sunflyers are super nice coaches, hopefully you'll have smoother sailing in the future and no electrical problems.

Best of Luck, Jim

[BigRedLancer]

I just had my "dead instrument" panel repaired and it turned out to be a couple of modules were drawing too much current and the result was a blown instrument fuse. The faulty modules were the daytime running light module and the turn signal switch. Don't know what these modules have to do with the instrument cluster but replacing them fixed the problem.

Good luck

[Fxrscotty]

I had the same thing happen to my E450 Class C and it turned out to be the gage cluster. I had forgotten about it. Had it replaced and all is well. Scotty.