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bobpam54's avatar
bobpam54
Explorer
Dec 26, 2014

no power to gauges and will not start

Hello all you smart technical people.





i have a good one for you.
We are ready to go south and I go out to start the motorhome and .....nothing
When I turn on the key there is suppost to be lots of lights and alarms sounding.. I get nothing...When I try to start the motor nothing
I checked all sorts of places with my volt meter and I have power in all my places ... Batteries are up fine.
The next thing that I did is crawl underneath the motor and jump the starter...voila starts right up and runs good. But still no gauges working reading no oil pressure, no air pressure,no voltage.no fuel .. no nothing

Has anyone encountered this before?
Thanks for your replays
Bob
Class A

17 Replies

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  • tommy_g's avatar
    tommy_g
    Explorer
    Dec 26, 2014
    What type unit do you have? Could it simply be the battery cut off? My old gasser has cutoff switches for both house and chassis.
  • PRodacy's avatar
    PRodacy
    Explorer
    Dec 26, 2014
    More than likely you need a new battery. Voltage can be OK but current output is probably insufficient. A partial short in the battery can prevent a jump from being effdctive. Since it starts by going directly to the startrr. A ground problem is unlikely.
  • bobpam54's avatar
    bobpam54
    Explorer
    Dec 26, 2014
    ok pianotuna
    Thank you for your reply...
    I guess I will have to run this thing into the garage and see if they can find it...
    I am thinking that it might be something simple but I could be wrong

    Worse thing is I have to run it 100 miles with no gauges

    Bob
  • enblethen's avatar
    enblethen
    Nomad
    Dec 26, 2014
    Is this on the Cat chassis?
    Do you have power to the compartment fuses under the driver's seat area in exterior compartment?
    Check to make sure battery disconnects are in operate mode.
  • RckyMtnVia's avatar
    RckyMtnVia
    Explorer
    Dec 26, 2014
    Can you run the generator? If so does that power up gauges etc? On a previous diesel pusher we had the alternator die and all gauges etc. died. Freightliner said to run the generator and all gauges came back, so we ran the generator while travelling until we got to a Freightliner dealer and had the alternator replaced.
  • YC_1's avatar
    YC_1
    Nomad
    Dec 26, 2014
    What rv do you have? Add that to your profile when you get a chance for quicker responses.

    Seems you are techno savvy enough to jump start it so grab a voltmeter and a long wire to hook to a good ground and see if there is any voltage under the dash.

    Any chance your rv has a "Salesman switch" that is needed to fire things up?

    When you hotwired the started did you have the key in the on position or did it run without that?

    Do your headlights work?
  • pianotuna's avatar
    pianotuna
    Nomad III
    Dec 26, 2014
    Hi,

    Probably a bad ground in the cab. It will not be fun to find and fix it.

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