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Slojoe72's avatar
Slojoe72
Explorer
Jan 18, 2015

Electrical problem?

I just bought a 1999 holiday rambler imperial 40' with a cummins 350hp. 37,000 miles and has been sitting fir a couple years. On the ride home I noticed when turning the headlights on the guages flicker and the coolant temp went 1/4 higher. At first I thought it was running hot, so we stopped to check out. Everything in back was good... Fired it up again and noticed temp was normal (head lights off). Started driving again and saw when turning on headlight the guage would go from straight up normal to just before the red when turning lights on.
That's the first thing I noticed.....
Day two the next morning had a hard time cranking very cold 25 degrees. Sounded like low voltage, cranked slow starter clicked a few times and cranked slow again. Put a battery charger on it and it started right up.
Day 3 thinking I had a battery issue ... Brought home a battery tester. Both 1000cca batteries checked good 1006 and 1056. Started up and it seemed to still crank over very slow but started (Warmer out 40 degrees). But while it was idling the guage rpms were like 2500rpms but the engine was at normal high idle 1000 rpm ish. Also mph guage was sitting at 15 mph. Kinda sounds related problems .......


Turned off and said F it. Any ideas where yo start looking??
Thanks in advance.
Class A
  • wolfe10's avatar
    wolfe10
    Explorer
    Jan 18, 2015
    Likely dash gauge ground issue. First step is to just add an additional ground.
  • Grandpere's avatar
    Grandpere
    Explorer
    Jan 18, 2015
    wolfe10 wrote:
    Likely dash gauge ground issue. First step is to just add an additional ground.


    X2
  • Slojoe72's avatar
    Slojoe72
    Explorer
    Jan 18, 2015
    Dash problem ..... Cause a starting issue?

    I get that could cause the guage problem ....... But could it also
    be related to the starting issue??

    Thanks
  • chuckftboy's avatar
    chuckftboy
    Explorer
    Jan 18, 2015
    More likely a weak ground at the chassis or possibly a bad cable. Sometimes a battery cable can look good but has a resistance due to internal corrosion. Start with the easy stuff.
  • BobandShaz's avatar
    BobandShaz
    Explorer
    Jan 19, 2015
    chuckftboy wrote:
    More likely a weak ground at the chassis or possibly a bad cable. Sometimes a battery cable can look good but has a resistance due to internal corrosion. Start with the easy stuff.


    I would start here... Look for mice issues on the wires.
  • Slojoe72's avatar
    Slojoe72
    Explorer
    Jan 19, 2015
    They are new batteries .... So the seller said. They look real clean and new. I will follow both the positive and negative cables checking connections.
    Thanks guys
  • Sierra_Valley_M's avatar
    Sierra_Valley_M
    Explorer
    Jan 19, 2015
    This fix worked for me several years ago.


    Posted: 05/27/06 05:56pm Link | Print | Notify Moderator

    The problem is........GONE!!!!!!
    I got started again this afternoon and finished connecting the dash light grounds to a good grounding bus bar and also connected the common gauge grounds to that same bus bar. Everything worked normally.

    Roger, the white ground wires went from dash light to gauge and then to the next light and so on. I think that the system you described must be for newer Monaco's.

    So, the fix was:
    1. Separate the dash light grounds from the gauge grounds.
    2. Ground each group with it's own wire to a known, good ground.

    Thanks for all of your help. I don't know that I would have even started without it.

    Mike

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