Guys,
When I engage the E-Brake my light no longer illuminates, I looked at
the switch on the brake assemble however there is only one wire in it.
I have also replaced the light. I also have an electronic speedo,
that the LED display no longer works all the time. Speedo works,
Light works, No LCD. The reason I mention this is due to some ground
threads.
Is it possible I have a loose ground gremlin ?
I am assuming the Ground should go to the chassis. Or does the ground
go to the negative.
Doug
E-Brake Light
Moderator: TechMOGogy
-
Jimm391730
- Posts: 1456
- Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Idyllwild, CA
Hi Doug,
The ebrake switch grounds to chassis when the switch is released, this turns on the indicator light. Test it by grounding the wire to the switch; if the light lights, the switch is bad. They get corroded from water and dirt under the chassis; although they seem to last a long time they will die eventually. One of mine was in pretty bad shape, but in my case the ebrake light kept flickering on even when the brake was released; the switch was the culprit. Know that it can be challenging to find a good spot to ground the wire for the test; the Steyr folks did a great job of sealing off the bare metal with paint. You might try a jumper wire to the bare aluminum differential.
My other truck's VDO speedo works, but the odometer display has become blank just recently. I expect that the speedo has a decent ground (or the speedo portion and backlighting would not work at all) but I haven't really looked at it yet. As much as I'd love to get both our odometers working just by finding a bad ground my gut feel is that the display has failed.
Chassis is tied to the negative side of the battery (when the battery key is turned on). Since we are used to dealing with "positive" 24 volts in the wiring, the negative end is often considered "ground", "low", "negative", or most correctly "24V return". So compared to the +24V end of the battery, the negative end is connected to the chassis (esentially everything, all the metal on the truck) and this "everything" can be effectively considered "ground" as far as the truck wiring is concerned.
I have had a bad (disconnected) ground wire under the dash that caused the gas gauge to wiggle about 1/4 of a tank when the turn signal was engaged! IIRC other dash lights flickered/dimmed with the turn signals, also because of this. The ground lead that was disconnected went to a spade lug that is bolted to the front body of the truck under the dash. It wouldn't have come loose if I hadn't been up in there messing with stuff, but that is what must happen if you need to fix stuff like the gas gauge and speedo. Oh well, live and learn (I have).
Hope my rambilngs have helped.
Best of luck,
Jim M.
712W and 710M
The ebrake switch grounds to chassis when the switch is released, this turns on the indicator light. Test it by grounding the wire to the switch; if the light lights, the switch is bad. They get corroded from water and dirt under the chassis; although they seem to last a long time they will die eventually. One of mine was in pretty bad shape, but in my case the ebrake light kept flickering on even when the brake was released; the switch was the culprit. Know that it can be challenging to find a good spot to ground the wire for the test; the Steyr folks did a great job of sealing off the bare metal with paint. You might try a jumper wire to the bare aluminum differential.
My other truck's VDO speedo works, but the odometer display has become blank just recently. I expect that the speedo has a decent ground (or the speedo portion and backlighting would not work at all) but I haven't really looked at it yet. As much as I'd love to get both our odometers working just by finding a bad ground my gut feel is that the display has failed.
Chassis is tied to the negative side of the battery (when the battery key is turned on). Since we are used to dealing with "positive" 24 volts in the wiring, the negative end is often considered "ground", "low", "negative", or most correctly "24V return". So compared to the +24V end of the battery, the negative end is connected to the chassis (esentially everything, all the metal on the truck) and this "everything" can be effectively considered "ground" as far as the truck wiring is concerned.
I have had a bad (disconnected) ground wire under the dash that caused the gas gauge to wiggle about 1/4 of a tank when the turn signal was engaged! IIRC other dash lights flickered/dimmed with the turn signals, also because of this. The ground lead that was disconnected went to a spade lug that is bolted to the front body of the truck under the dash. It wouldn't have come loose if I hadn't been up in there messing with stuff, but that is what must happen if you need to fix stuff like the gas gauge and speedo. Oh well, live and learn (I have).
Hope my rambilngs have helped.
Best of luck,
Jim M.
712W and 710M