I have a 2004 Cat 420DIT BLN11055. The other day while digging some stumps, the gauges stopped working. The tach is frozen at 2000, the fuel gauge, voltmeter and hydraulic oil temp gauge don't move and the hours meter is not lighting up, the only gauge working is the water temp. Starts and runs fine and everything else is working, lights, radio, etc. Checked the fuses, but nothing wrong I can find. Am about to start taking it apart to see what's up, but not sure where to start. Since the hours meter is not working, I'm thinking it's not necessarily a problem in the instrument panel or ignition switch, but not sure. Any ideas what could be wrong?
maybe mice chewing the wire harnesses in the panel holding the gauge displays. Happened to me in my ASV skidsteer about 8 years ago.
Thanks for the input. After doing more troubleshooting I found I was wrong about the Temp gauge, it was just frozen like the tach. After going through the wires and seeing no mouse nest/chewing and using a voltmeter to track down the voltage, I went back to square one to retrace my steps and replaced the fuse which looked like it was ok and the gauges work again. So 90% of my problem turned out to be the fuse. The hours meter still does not work, but it has voltage.... so looks like I need to replace it.
Glad you got it sorted out. I know that my 2000 JD backhoe looks for a low voltage AC pulse from the alternator for the hour meter/tach.
I know this is old thread, but what was the fuse that you replaced? I have the same issues.