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Cluster crap contagious?! New battery & negative cable - bad f


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Have never had ANY cluster issues with this truck, fuel gauge very accurate up until today. I installed a new battery and new negative cable (old one had corrosion soaked right into the strands) - now my fuel gauge is hosed. Tank is full just a few miles ago, "range" is reading as I expect it to, including going up several miles when I park it on the driveway slope so the sender is working as expected. Gauge sits at half tank mark with key off, turn key on and it goes way past full to 3 o'clock and stays there. :(

 

Drove it around the neighborhood hoping it would figure itself out but it hasn't.

 

Ideas?

 

edit - well crud, title is too long to fit and now I can't edit it afterwards

 

Thanks,

Richard

Edited by someotherguy (see edit history)
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I took the cluster out, separated the lens a little, and used a wire to push the needle back to the far left. First couple times I turned the truck on, it read correctly at "full" and went to "empty" when I shut it off. After that it's back to screwed up...

 

Richard

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I have issues with my cluster as well but my problem is the temp gauge. I feel like all the issues I've had as of late is due to a bad ground somewhere but I can't friggin find it. Have you checked yours?

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

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Eh, whole cluster worked perfectly every single time until immediately after I changed out the battery and negative cable. Only 2 grounds with the negative cable - the main cable to the engine block, without that it's not going to start...other one to the front of the core support, and both are nice and tight. Everything else on the truck working fine.

 

What gets me is this damn new battery cable, I spent extra to get real-deal AC Delco, the covering over the terminal end was too thick to allow the bolt to get started into the battery. I tried several times so it sparked the connection on/off each time, which I'm betting zapped the damn cluster. I ended up having to shave down the plastic on the covering so it would work. The box gets away somehow with saying "Assembled in Mexico" but doesn't say where the parts were made, which I'm guessing was goddam China since they've outsourced so much to them.

 

Richard

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Thanks, yeah I know all about the stepper motor issues these clusters can suffer from - it just seems really bizarre to me that it would go from working fine to just the fuel gauge crapped out, from simply replacing the battery.

 

Oh well, it is what it is, guess I'm ordering some stepper motors and do the whole cluster.

 

Richard

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:pop: Good luck sorting it out.

 

As prone to failure as these stepper motors are, it seems possible that the surge from connecting the new battery may have zapped a weak one.

^^ Agree.

I had a similar problem with my oil pressure gauge.

It would intermittently read a little off and wasn't really noticeable. Then it would do all kinds of weird things.

I did the stepper motor and LED conversion at the same time.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just to wrap this up, I replaced the stepper motor for the fuel gauge and all seems well. I bought enough to do the whole cluster but since the rest of it has been 100% so far I'll probably wait until another one fails before saying F it and do all the rest at once. Not like it's hard to get it out of the truck and get to work on it.

 

Richard

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