I found the article below; I haven't tried it yet. I'll check the ground etc... My GT had been sitting without a charger for 6 or 7 weeks. Anyone have any other thoughts?
Talk about a freak-out. I'm driving the GT and I look over and see the gas gauge past empty. A few minutes earlier I'd had just under a quarter of a tank, but now I'm in heavy Friday afternoon traffic and no fuel stations are in sight. I couldn't believe the car gulped nearly a quarter tank in the 10 minutes since I'd last looked at the gauge (sure, it will go that fast during top speed testing at the Nardo track in Italy, but not in stop-n-go on PCH)... Then I happen to glimpse the tach, which was also sitting at zero (bizarre because I had the engine on and was moving at about 20 mph). A glimpse at the speedo, temp and oil pressure dials confirmed the obivous -- the gauge cluster was dead. Suddenly I wished I was back to simply driving on fumes. But the car seemed to be running fine, so I kept going and started wondering how hard it would be to schedule a dealer visit while also driving around without any fuel, temp or oil information (not to mention speed or rpm data). Then I had an inspiration. My old 1970 Plymouth GTX often suffered from intermittent gauge failure, but flipping the headlights on always cured the problem -- at least for awhile. I reached down, flipped the on GT's toggle switch for headlights, and BAM! Every gauge jumped to life. That was over 500 miles ago, and the issue hasn't re-appeared, so maybe it was a fluke (actually, it was obviously a bad ground, but so far not a recurring one). Either way, I love it when my history of driving old Mopars actually aids me in 21st century automotive diagnostics.
Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief, Edmunds.com @ 5710 miles
Talk about a freak-out. I'm driving the GT and I look over and see the gas gauge past empty. A few minutes earlier I'd had just under a quarter of a tank, but now I'm in heavy Friday afternoon traffic and no fuel stations are in sight. I couldn't believe the car gulped nearly a quarter tank in the 10 minutes since I'd last looked at the gauge (sure, it will go that fast during top speed testing at the Nardo track in Italy, but not in stop-n-go on PCH)... Then I happen to glimpse the tach, which was also sitting at zero (bizarre because I had the engine on and was moving at about 20 mph). A glimpse at the speedo, temp and oil pressure dials confirmed the obivous -- the gauge cluster was dead. Suddenly I wished I was back to simply driving on fumes. But the car seemed to be running fine, so I kept going and started wondering how hard it would be to schedule a dealer visit while also driving around without any fuel, temp or oil information (not to mention speed or rpm data). Then I had an inspiration. My old 1970 Plymouth GTX often suffered from intermittent gauge failure, but flipping the headlights on always cured the problem -- at least for awhile. I reached down, flipped the on GT's toggle switch for headlights, and BAM! Every gauge jumped to life. That was over 500 miles ago, and the issue hasn't re-appeared, so maybe it was a fluke (actually, it was obviously a bad ground, but so far not a recurring one). Either way, I love it when my history of driving old Mopars actually aids me in 21st century automotive diagnostics.
Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief, Edmunds.com @ 5710 miles
