No speedo or tach, chimes stuck on, HELP!

[sprucegoose]

OK, this is a strange one! My daughter called me when she was driving the GP tonight... All of the sudden the speedo and tach quit while she was driving and the chime starts dinging! It is like when you leave the lights on with your key out of the ignition, except now it is doing it even with the car running!

As soon as you turn the lights off the chime quits, but still no tach or speedometer... My first thought was to disconnect the battery, and reset the computer. Or at least check to see if the connections were tight. So I raise the hood... Where the heck is the battery in this thing, under the rear seat? I didn't even have time to look tonight as we had a party we were heading off to. Will look at tomorrow.

Anyone have these symtoms happen to them before, or have any suggestions as to what to check first? Thanks for any help here!

[sprucegoose]

OK, I found I have a blown #39 fuse, (I/P electronics ignition feed). As soon as I replace this 10a fuse and turn the key, it blows again... Any clues or similar experiences??

[sprucegoose]

Sooo... Nobody has any suggestions? I have this dash torn half way out to see if there is anything obvious, but see nothing. I thought maybe I had pinched a wire when i installed the CD player, but see nothing there. There is a thin pink wire coming off the back of the fuse box for that circuit, but it goes into the main harness along with another half dozen pink wires like it!

Everything else seems to be functioning fine. I was going to pull the gages, but can't seem to figure out how to get the wiring harness unplugged there. There is this large blue connector, but I can't get my hands in there, or a pliers to grip the release...

Does anyone else have a wiring harness schematic that would help out here?

[BIG-L]

Sooo... Nobody has any suggestions?

The hole time you have posted,you have yet to say what year & model of GP your working on

Thanks


~Larry~

[sprucegoose]

Originally Posted by BIG-L

The hole time you have posted,you have yet to say what year & model of GP your working on
Thanks
~Larry~

Dohhh!! Sorry, I never thought about that! Meant to add it to my signature when we bought it, but never did... It's a 96 SE 4dr. Thanks for pointing that out Larry.

[sprucegoose]

Here is the picture of the plug I am still trying to get disconnected from the gages. Anyone have any tips on how to get it off? I can't reach it with my hand, it's surrounded by dash, and you can't pull the cluster out till it's disconnected as far as I can see...

[sprucegoose]

Here is another pic, zoomed in a little more. How do you get this thing off?

[sprucegoose]

It's out! Pushing on the larger tab at the bottom at the same time as I pryed with another screw driver... Now with the cluster out, the fuse does not blow, or headlight chime works correctly.

What does that tell me? It could be the gage cluster itself (hopefully) or something in the mass of wiring in that circuit... How can I test the gage cluster, or do I just try and find another used one to swap out? Any suggestions?

[sprucegoose]

OK, just don't ask me what was wrong though... I took the gages all apart, but didn't see anything wrong in the PCB panel or connections. I did really check all the grounds and wiring over well though, tying stuff up out of the way so it wouldn't be touching the metal dash sub-structure. One thing I noted is there seems to be a lot crap under there from this aftermarket security system, but it seems all connected and insulated well.

So piece by piece I started putting things back together, with the fuse in checking it each time (thought for sure it was going to blow when I plugged in the cluster!) and it stayed up and running! Let's hope it stays that way for a while!