I'll definitely be careful with the switch when I put it in. Unfortunately it's still too cold here to do anything. Snow and wind and all that jazz. But I'll let you guys know as soon as I make some sort of progress.

 

Hey. It even snowed here all night and day. Still snowing. This boy ain't liking it. I did get to try my 4 wheel drive for real though. Give me 100* any day.

 

Hey Gimpy, I'm working on the truck a little bit today while it's relatively warm out. Surprisingly enough, when I disconnected the lighter it didn't blow the fuse! Next I'm going to check all the bulbs and check the voltage to the fuse block like you said. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

OJ. You let me know that the fuse is not blowing. Great. Put your meter on 20 volts and start checking for power at the light sockets (the inside center of the light sockets). Make sure you don't contact the side of the socket or you may have to replace the fuse. Ground is the (for lack of a better word) barrel of the socket. You should get about 12 volts or so. If it's a little less than that it's OK. If you don't get anything try grounding the black lead to a known good ground. On the dome lights you have a different type of socket. Put your red lead on the prong of the light and just ground the black. Try the other side of the light if you don't get results with the first prong. Have you checked the bulbs yet with the meter? Remember - lowest ohms setting - red to center of bulb and black to brass part of the base. Should get pretty close to zero. If it doesn't move - bad bulb. The dome light bulbs you just put your leads on either end and should get close to zero. If it doesn't move - bad bulb. At your cigarette lighter check to see if you have 12 volts or so (meter on 20 volts) at the center (Orange wire) with the black lead grounded to the barrel (Black wire). Let me know what you find after all of this.

 

I have a 1991 S-10 with a digital dash. My fuel gauge stays at full and the dash flickers badly when driving. All other gauges seem to operate properly.
Any clues as what to look at first?

 

Looks like tweo different problems. Your instrument panel may have loosened up a little and causing the flickering. The I/P basically plugs in to a big connector behind it. I would think that if the four hold down nuts were loose it would do this. I would first check if this is so. You can try to wiggle it without taking anything apart but this isn't a guarantee that you could detect it. If you've never had one off before. Here's a website that will tell you what to do. Go to "Removal Instructions" link. You probably don't have to take it all the way out, Just enough to check the mounting nuts. If they are tight your I/P connector might be getting worn. If they are tight, check grounds first. If thet doesn't do it, call the guy in the link.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1989-...mZ350102002017
As far as the fuel gauge is concerned it probably either isn't connected, bad ground or the wire is damaged. It's not completing the circuit to ground. I don't know what year we're working on here but I think most vehicles have the same color code on the gauge/pump wiring at the tank. Gray is hot to pump, purple is hot to sender and black or black with white stripe is ground. There may be two ground wires so check them both. Make sure they are clean and tight. They attach to the rear frame crossmember behind the tank. If this doesn't do it, post again. Let us know one way or another please.

 

Wow!
I did not think anyone would respond with such in depth instructions. I'll give it a whack! I'll let you know when I get to it.

Thank you soooo much for the info and link!

 

Hey Gimpy, You're going to love this. I know you've been following my transmission issues and all, and all that happened yesterday when I thought it was slipping. It wasn't slipping at all. I'm going to try my best to explain this and hopefully you can figure it out but at this point it just seems like my truck is possessed.
I tried to leave again today to go to my apartment after my dad and I figured out yesterday that the transmission was totally fine and it did the same thing today where it felt like the brakes were on and it couldn't go anywhere. Here is what I did:
First, I have to admit that I have not yet changed the door jamb switch. I don't have a good excuse I just haven't had time to yet... So I've been keeping the horn/dm fuse out unless I go on a long trip because I don't think it's safe to drive on the highway without a horn. Both today and yesterday I had thought about putting the fuse in right before I was about to leave and both days I put it in while the truck was running. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but doing this is what is causing my problem. Let me explain:
Today right when I put the HORN/DM fuse in I noticed that the speedometer needle went below the normal point it sits at when I'm not moving, and when I tried to drive away it would not move at all, and the car didn't want to go anywhere. It felt like the brakes were on just like yesterday. I double checked the parking brake to make sure I disengaged it. Then on a hunch I turned the car off, pulled the fuse out and put it back in again, and when I turned the truck back on and tried to drive away the speedometer worked again and the truck drove away just fine and didn't feel like it was being held back at all. Now how in the hell is this possible? I figured this one might stump even you.

 

I see the gauntlet has been thrown down. I'll figure it out. I just might take a bit.

All I can see is it's shunted (connected on the back side) to your ignition switch, battery hot and an ECM circuit that may have interferred or spiked the circuit. Be cool when you do stuff like that or you may have a whole lot more to fix than you bargained for.