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The 67 truck I just bought seems to have electrical gremlins. The tach doesn't work right, and when I start to drive it the gas gauge needle goes to a right-hand position where it ain't supposed to be goin'.

Something is also putting a drain on the "brand new" battery.

I'm sure there are other issues that I'm not yet aware of.

I know my techie will eventually get around to checking into this, but I just thought I'd ask and see if anyone in here has any ideas.

Davey

Mine does the same thing...becasue its not hooked up. The PO put an aftermarket tank in the bed so the wiring coming from the gauge in the dash isn't hooked to anything...I have to use the tried and true "put-a-stick-in-the tank" method to see how much gas I've got. Maybe either the wire running from the gauge to the tank or the ground wire to the tank has become disconnected somehow.

I've got other electrical issues. Someone has run wires for things that aren't even hooked up anymore.

There's a dual fan connected to the front of the radiator, which no longer works.

At least two switches on the dash which we don't know what are for, which don't seem to do anything.

Homey will work it out, if he ever gets around to working on the doggone thing...

Davey

I think, at least I hope, we found the gremlin today.

Somebody wired the radio directly to the battery.

When we disconnected that, it seemed to kill the pull/drag on the battery.

Hopefully that's he only problem, electrically.

Wait and see.

Davey

For a quick test:

Disconnect the negative cable from the battery and take a volt meter and measure between negative battery pole and the disonnected cable.

If there is any voltage you got something sucking at your battery.

Frank

Thanks Stovebold.

I think we found the problem. After disconnecting the radio from the positive terminal and leaving the battery cables connected overnight she fired up without any problem this morning.

Hopefully that was the only culprit.

Davey

Davey,

What item in the radio, which was probably turned off, was draining the battery? That little digital clock doesn't consume much current. I wouldn't stamp this "case closed" yet!


Not-from-Sweden-Stu

I'm not sure. It is also a CD player. Don't know if that makes the difference. It's still cranking, so I don't guess there's any more drain on the battery. It had a srious drain before we cut the wire.

Actually, the CD player part of it worked, but seemed to have no power to the radio itself. I don't understand that. I have another digital radio I'll try to install as soon as I get time.

Since I don't think the Battery gauge is working, I have no other way of telling about this. I'll keep watching it.

Davey

I had a lot of similar "gremlins" when I got my 61. It was a real pain in the a$$ for a while. One weekend I climbed under the truck and spent the days pulling out extraneous wires, it had a lot of farm rigged Git-R-Done type wiring done to it. I pulled out at least a hundred feet of wire, total, from under the dash, hood and bed areas. After that almost all of the gremlins were gone. A couple things that hadn't worked before now work and I learned a lot about how my truk is wired. I would suggest spending a day under your dash and becoming aquanited with what is under there. Some of the stuff I found was pretty scary and I am pretty sure I averted a major fire or two. At one place the PO's kid had put a CD player in and he just shoved the power wire into the back of the fuse panel and then screwed it back down! A lot of questionable and scary things can be done in the lifetime of an old truck. Good Luck!

Yup Forty, I got a feeling that whoever added a lot of these wires were just sticking them wherever they could make 'em hot.

I'll have to do exactly what you suggested. Take a look and learn as I go.

Thanks again!

Davey