Gauge problems

[Hyginkz]

Had an engine compartment fire last weekend, Battery shorted directly to ground and made a big mess. Usualy I like sparks and flames, but not when I'm driving. Got the fire out with very little damage, and the truck never missed a beat. Now I have a problem with my oil pressure, temp, and spedo gauge. The oil pressure has been sitting higher than normal, almost maxed out. The temp gauge reads cold real well, as it aproches operating temp, it jumps way up to almost pegged, then drops back down to normal. The Spedo waves at me when the road is bumpy but is otherwise fine. I also have my brake and abs warning lights flashing intermitently. I am going to start with the regulator first I think. Any other ideas? '91 W250 Turbo Diesel, 4X4, 280,000m Also the oil and temp gauge peg when it's shut off now instead of going to 0.
Thanks

[curtishall]

Sorry...I can only help on one of those problems.

Brake lights / ABS light and speedometer wierdness is most likely the ABS Sensor (also known as Speed sensor). It's located on top of the rear differtiantial and is very easy to replace (took a whole 5 minutes).

There's detailed information on this forum about replacing the sensor...I would suggest if you do this to drop the rear tire for added room

[Hyginkz]

I'm pretty sure my sensor is good, it only acts up when I get water in my dif, However it may have blown out when the battery melted in half, so I'll check it out too. Thanks

[1stRAM]

Originally Posted by Hyginkz

Had an engine compartment fire last weekend, Battery shorted directly to ground and made a big mess. Usualy I like sparks and flames, but not when I'm driving. Got the fire out with very little damage, and the truck never missed a beat. Now I have a problem with my oil pressure, temp, and spedo gauge. The oil pressure has been sitting higher than normal, almost maxed out. The temp gauge reads cold real well, as it aproches operating temp, it jumps way up to almost pegged, then drops back down to normal. The Spedo waves at me when the road is bumpy but is otherwise fine. I also have my brake and abs warning lights flashing intermitently. I am going to start with the regulator first I think. Any other ideas? '91 W250 Turbo Diesel, 4X4, 280,000m Also the oil and temp gauge peg when it's shut off now instead of going to 0.
Thanks

our 2000 ram was doing the same thing about a month back, tried speed sensors(rear and tranny),gauge cluster and looked for loose wires behide dash---no go---finally gave and took it to mech. and they found a bum wire under the hood leading to the PDC.since you had a fire under there maybe this might help. just a thought,hope it helps!!

[Hyginkz]

After an extensive search, and repairing some previously "modified" wiring, it turned out that my problem was in the regulator. Took it in and had it tested, showed pass after 10 tests. So we slammed it down on the counter a few times while testing and it failed each time. Tested a new one the same way and it passed, so $15.00 later my truck is back to its old self. Thanks for the suggestions.

[A97]

I got a dash problem for you guys. apparently i have a short somewhere in the dash because the 4wd light comes on and off and flickers alot, funny thing is is that I don`t even have 4wd

[Hyginkz]

What year and model?

[A97]

It`s a `98 but I found the problem after tearing my dash apart and chasing the wires I found a connector for 4x4 under the hood near the radiator that was never capped off so it was all green and corroded. I couldnt clean it all out to make the problem go away for good ( although cleaning it helped) so I just cut it away and shrinked the wire ends problem solved