The red warning lights on all gauges were lit this morning. Shut off engine and restarted several times the problem continued, the only gauges that had actual readings were the volt gauge and the tach other than that all gauges were pegged on zero. Pulled it into the shop, problem went away and has not returned. Any ideas what could cause this?
Low battery, bad battery connections, or possibly a bad ground?
Almost every funky issue I had with a KW was ground related. My 06 Pete had all the gauges daisy chained together. I'm not sure what controls them, perhaps there's a "brain" somewhere relaying info from various locations to the gauges. I have an 05 KW that doesn't have the newer daisy chain setup. I'd check all the ground cables, battery terminals, ground stud on starter etc. Sounds like a gremlin to me.
I would check with the KW dealer and see if they have a service bulletin covering that issue. I know Peterbilt had some body control module issues in the 389 trucks that involved a ground plug under the dash that would raise heck with the gauges and electric door locks and such. Their fix was to replace the 2 wire plug with butt connectors.
07 I believe has a controller for gauges. There is a controller for the tail, brake turn and to many LED lights will crash it. Those are about 600.00 bucks. Truck Shop
I miss the days of a #4 stratoflex line to oil pressure, another pair to the air gauges, a couple wires to various temp gauges, a cable to the speedo and two wires from the thermocouple to the pyro.....
Gotta love multiplexing, NOT!!!!!
What the hell was wrong with stupidly SIMPLE??
Take it one further and go back to hydraulic temperature gauges. No electric required. I still see it on some of my generators, using Murphy switchgauge. I guess it is impractical for a truck but we can always dream.
Often thought this, too. Old machines so simple. Was stunned when I saw an old marine diesel that pushed a wedge further in on injector linkage to give more fuel Electronics has done amazing things boosting hp and helping emissions but, one little computer glitch can park you... Darryl
Started up a 1981 A-car to see how well it ran. Everything functioned, tach, oil pres and temp, water temp even the differential temp indicators Still worked. Old dog has issues, engine was a 8v71, trans a 9515, differential Eaton 44K on rubber ride. Engine has a low knock, uncertain if fuel or maybe a scoring sleeve, trans will NOT shift into high gear in any way shape or form but all the cluster of crap analog instrumentation worked and it started after sitting for four years on two borrowed batteries.
Most all of our new trucks {Freightliners} have four fuse boxes located in various spots. With all the wiring, switches, relays and so on it probably added fifty pounds to the GVW. Truck Shop