posted this on Dakota 2nd Gen forum...thought would be better here, maybe.


I just joined this site and noticed I'm not the only one with electrical gremlins, here's mine. I went to start it up one day and when I turned the ignition, it went compeatly dead, nothing. I popped the hood and jiggled the negative battery cable (I left my door open to see the interior light), everything came on...door chime, light etc. Get in to start, same thing again. My boyfriend had me stay in the truck while he messed with it when I noticed all my gauges went wacky. The gas gauge went all the way to full, temp went to the extreme, oil pressure sky high...then back to nothing. Anyway, finally got it to start but now I have no pre-start chime, no chime when I leave key in or if I leave the lights on after shuting it off. Oh and I have no intermittent wiper either maybe once in a while but even that's not right now. My boyfriend said it did this to him a while back and took him an hour just for it to get power to crank.

I was thinking it might be the multi function switch or the time and alarm module which is about 350.00 at the dealer.
I almost forgot....prior to all this, my cooling fan has an open circuit somewhere causing it not to come on when the air is initiated or the temp reaches 210 or more. Currently I have a toggle switch to turn it on bypassing the PCM so I have to keep an eye on the temp so I don't blow a head gasket which is how I obtained it so cheap among other reasons.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Jennifer

Dakota Sport Reg Cab (restoring to original condition paid 750.00 for the truck)
2.5 second motor with 85000 miles on it...one in it when I bought it ran for a year with #4 valve having a chunk blown out of it,
#3 barely moving, eventually after rebuilding top end,the main bearing went and had to replace motor (got a great deal on it) but have most of original engine for parts.
5 speed Trans.




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Could be a bad battery, the post where the cable attaches may have a break inside the casing.
Replace the cable/s if in doubt. For cheaper Mopar parts try www.makeitmopar.com

Try disconnecting the negative battery for about 10 minutes and then reconnect. See if any of your chime problems, etc go away.

 

Thanks...I'll try that. I still need to find the open circuit on the cooling fan. I think it's the C2 wire from the PCM to the fan as my relay test's ok as does the junction box.