jinma 224, gages dead.

[dcyrilc]

I would also lean toward looking for a grounding issue.

 

[TSMART]

Headlights and tail lights work. Here is a pic of the back of the cluster. On the right side (as shown) you have fuel gage (top) water temp (bottom)....on left side as shown, oil pressure top and ammeter bottom.

Looks like the 2 fat red and black wire go to ammeter. Can I use that BLACK post as my ground point, then connect a wire from that to my neg terminal. I will get two alligator clips and a piece of wire for the jump, OK? If not, can I use the screw posts which mount the cluster to the cowl?

The other pic from front side of cluster shows that the lights are on, and that pic was taken with engine running.

 

[Bob Rooks]

Looks like the 2 fat red and black wire go to ammeter. Can I use that BLACK post as my ground point, then connect a wire from that to my neg terminal.

NO! You will start a fire! Both of those ammeter wires will be hot when you turn on the key switch. Neither one of them is a ground wire. The ammeter is internally shunted and allows full current flow through it. The color coding in this case depicts correct direction of current flow so the meter doesn't read backwards.

 

[TSMART]

OK so what am I grounding to on the back of the cluster?

 

[Bob Rooks]

OK so what am I grounding to on the back of the cluster?

I agree with K7LN's suggestions.
It's hard to tell from the pic but it appears that the long mounting stud at the top left has a connection within the pc board and that would be a safe place to start with the alligator clip test.

 

[greg_g]

OK so what am I grounding to on the back of the cluster?

Like I said; black wire, left side pig-tail. That's the same cluster described in my last post.

//greg//

 

[Bob Rooks]

Like I said; black wire, left side pig-tail. That's the same cluster described in my last post.

//greg//

But NOT the ammeter black wire.

 

[dcyrilc]

Headlights and tail lights work. Here is a pic of the back of the cluster. On the right side (as shown) you have fuel gage (top) water temp (bottom)....on left side as shown, oil pressure top and ammeter bottom.

Looks like the 2 fat red and black wire go to ammeter. Can I use that BLACK post as my ground point, then connect a wire from that to my neg terminal. I will get two alligator clips and a piece of wire for the jump, OK? If not, can I use the screw posts which mount the cluster to the cowl?

The other pic from front side of cluster shows that the lights are on, and that pic was taken with engine running.

Looking at the back of the cluster, the two larger red and black wires are the amp meter and can be eliminated from being your issue. On each side there are five wires; blue, green?, yellow, orange, and brown. These are the returns for the indicator lamps on each side. The red on the right appears to provide the power for the lamps and maybe the two guages as well through the resistor. Hard to see in this photo though. I would expect a red for indicator power on the left also, but can't see it in this pic. You should be able to eliminate all of those wires as well. What does that leave left to examine? Shouldn't be that much. I can see a gray and white on the right, but hard to tell what else. Might be worth unplugging the connector on the right, opposite side from the amp meter and check the condition of the terminals in the connector. It looks pretty dirty on the outside. Could be just dirt and crud in the connectors.

Still looking at the back of the cluster on the right. The two guages appear to get power to the right side terminal through the resistors. The top center terminal appears to connect to both guages and should be the ground terminal. The left terminal I cannot see what it connects to, but I expect it to connect to a signal wire to control the guage. Follow the circuit which connects to the top center terminal on the two guages and see if it connects to a black wire. I would look to connect a grounded test lead to one of those terminals and see if they respond to a good ground connection.

 

[TSMART]

IT'S FIXED!

I pulled the cluster completely, cleaned both pigtail connectors with CRC, blew them out, then re attatched. That did not get it.

Then I went behind the fuse box, found one big multi pronged pigtail adapter, cleaned that out, hit with air, reattatched....that did't get it either.

Then I took another look behind the fuse box, there was one more smaller three-pronged adaptor. I pulled that, cleaned it the same way, pluggged it back in, and got the gages back.

So another valuable lesson learned on this forum with the help of all of you. Can't really call myself an electrical expert. Not close!

It is amazing that I haven't yet had a problem with my 224 (an '05 with 450 hours now, had her since new) that I could not fix WITH THE HELP of this form. Cant say that about my car!

Thanks a lot!

 

[dcyrilc]

Glad to hear that she's working again. That was one of the reasons I mentioned that those connectors looked so dirty. As K7LN said, a little dirt and corrosion on the connectors can really play havoc.