Electrical Failure

[Steve Gallegos]

Yesterday after driving my car, Backdraft, for about 2 hrs I lost all my gauges, tach, speedo,turn sig, temp, oil, fan, gas, break lights. The engine kept running with no problems. This morning when I turned the car over everything worked fine. Any ideas.

[Zoom This]

That's wierd. I'd take a hard look at your fuse box, probably a major breaker/fuse has an intermittent open that has caused the electrical failure.

[Bill E]

Look at your ignition switch you may have a louse terminal

[Cashburn]

Check your battery cutoff switch. Could be loose or worn.

[Blas]

If you have a wiring schematic, find the common feed "+" that powers all those items you listed. Your ignition is most likely not powered by the same common source (probably its uninterupted power came directly from the alternator...That's why the car continued to run.
Your main ground at the battery is another thing to check, as is the main fuse...as mentioned earlier the cut-off switch
Not a good thing the power disconnecting and disconnecting - A power surge can damage electronic components. I don't have a Backdraft wiring schematic in my files, or I might be able to make a better guess...

[mreid]

Really need a wiring diagram, however, I'm going with a loose ground in the dash. To help substantiate this, did you loose the turn signals or only the dash indicators? DId this happen while the engine was running? If so, did you shut it off and immediately restart it? If so, did it start and if it started, did the same problem exist?

[Steve Gallegos]

I just lost all the dash gauges and lights, turn sig and brake lights. The engine continued to run fine.

[Excaliber]

Like Bill E. said, it's a "louse terminal", which is short (pun intended) for a lousy connection.

[Cashburn]

Have you checked the battery cut off switch? And I mean the terminals on the back of it and the engagement of the key...