Electrical gremlins.. where to start

[SMSC27]

I wouldn't say electrical is my weakness, but it definitely frustrates the ever living hell out of me.. i have 2 major electrical issues that have arisen within the past week.. first, let me start by saying i already checked all the fuses/fuse slots with a voltmeter, everything is fine in that department

first and foremost would be the right tail light.. everything was fine until (oddly enough) i pulled my column apart, to replace the plastic piece that triggers the ignition switch.. the tail lights themselves work fine, but the brake/turn signal quit working.. when i flick on the right blinker, it stays on steady, as if both bulbs were blown (i know this to be true, because the bulbs that were originally in there when i got the car, were both toast and it did just that.. this is also known to be true on S10's, which have similar light wiring).. where should i start with this headache? i already checked the wires that come through the rear panel in the trunk.. the regular tail light wire has juice, of course, but the turn signal/brake wire is dead as a door nail.. even checked with the hazards on, still no dice.. so it lost connection somewhere between the trunk and the front of the car..

second issue would be the cluster.. everything worked fine (except my voltmeter read a little on the low side, while the alt was truely pushing 13.9-14.3v consistantly).. then, out of the blue, none of the gauges were working, except the speedo obviously, because it's cable driven.. the cluster lights are still working (well, the 1's that aren't blown, at least) but the gauges all quit working at the exact same time.. again, fuses are all fine and nothing appears to be out of order..

i'm looking forward to turning wrenches, cutting, welding and fabing on the car, but i need to get these nightmares squared away before i can even begin the actual layout and setting up of the turbo and plumbing on this thing.. so any fingers pointing in the direction of the best place to start on these would be a huge help.. i don't know if these are common g body issues or not, so that's why i'm posting before tracing lol

 

[Bonnewagon]

I know electrics can be frustrating, but working methodically will get it fixed. I always begin at the grounds, as most headaches occur there. Then, I move from the bad item back upstream from connector to connector, all the way back to the battery. So for example if the brake light ground is good, but the circuit is dead, move to the next connector and so on back to the column and the brake pedal switch. There is a connector at the base of the column that carries the hazard/turn signal wires. A wiring diagram is most valuable and I always buy a factory manual for every car I own, mostly for electrical problems.

 

[pontiacgp]

sounds like you damaged the turn signal switch when you were working in the column. This part controls the brake lites and the turn signals

for your gauges you need to pull the gauges out to see if there is any power and ground getting to them and if not then you'll have to trace that wire back. Pink with a black stripe is the power wire

 

[SMSC27]

i found it, but by working from the front, instead. when screwing with wiring, i tend to start at the very end, then jump right to the front.. i guess you could say i'm *ss backwards lol.. i pulled the column apart, everything was perfectly fine, except for the snap ring popping out of it's groove, hurling column parts at me.. so i pulled the small panel at the bottom of the column off and there it was.. the green wire, broken flush with the connector and just sticking right out in plain sight. the brown wire was also about to bite the dust, so for the time being, i just bypassed those 2 wires, around the connector. all lights work as they should, now. going to tackle the cluster later today, after a much needed nap. i'll probably end up soldering a new connector from the junkyard in it's place, because the switch was replaced not too long before the car was pulled off the road.

 

[85olds]

On my car with the rally gauges (assuming that is what you have) I had the same type of problem, the volt gauge was reading about 1v lower then the bat and alt, I removed the instrument cluster and cleaned all the push plug contacts, installed and it was still low, removed again and then removed all the gauges out and found the volt gauge nuts were just slightly varnished over cleaned all nut for all gauges and gentle cleaned the plastic circuit board and re assembled all.....everything worked perfect. there was a .07 voltage drop from the bat to the volt gauge (well within acceptable limits). Good luck

 

[SMSC27]

i'll give it a shot, thanks. i have to pull the cluster anyway, because my tripometer doesn't work. i set it to 000.0 and it went up to 000.5 and stopped

 

[SMSC27]

alright.. finally got around to pulling my cluster.. everything is clean/untarnished and the board was still pretty clean.. i went ahead and disassembled it anyway, wiped down the board and hit all contacts with 320 grit paper.. still nothing, except a little response out of the volt meter and gas gauge.. working, no, but they moved themselves to a different position when i turned the key on.. anyone have any other ideas, before i pull the whole dash and check/trace everything? i even drug the 320 paper over the connector that the cluster slides into, so that's not it, either

 

[pontiacgp]

do you have power on the pink with black wire? and did you check the ground wire?

 

[SMSC27]

yep.. both check out fine, should have mentioned that.. i'm wondering if my board is crap

 

[pontiacgp]

I'd be looking at the board if you have power and ground. Those boards don't usually mess up unless they have been bent