Truck dashboard stopped working but will turn on if I hold the gear shifter lever a certain way. Gear shifter is a little funky to begin with but now it’s like the battery is getting drained from somewhere. I was thinking maybe the broken gear shifter has something to do with it? Truck will start if battery is charged but will then stall out and battery be dead again. So then thought it was the alternator cuz it wasn’t charging the battery but replaced it and same problem. So now I’m thinking it’s the wiring harness/ connector that plugs into the alternator? Or maybe the battery to alternator cable? I was also thinking the instrument cluster or something like that could cause it to be acting up. Checked the fuses for the clusters they seemed to be fine but still nothing. Any help to lead me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

What might be happening,,,
The switch located on the lower part of the steering column is not making good contact due to the problem with the shift tube.
That sw tells all the other parts the key is on or not and can influence starting. If the tube is broken, and I have replaced several for that reason it could be the cause of your vehicle's problem.

Can you look and verify that the tube is actually broken or not and get back to me, thanks.

 

The truck is starting but after a few min the truck will stall out and battery be dead. It is a new battery only like six months old. But I did check the shift tube and everything seems to look good. The gear shifter is broken where the overdrive button is could the wires be touching on the inside causing it to short? Or I’m thinking the cables from the battery to the alternator ( new alternator put in three days ago) may be bad I’m about to check with multimeter to see if cables r doing what there supposed to and check to see if all the grounds are connected properly.

 

I did a continuity test on the ignition switch and everything is getting current through it so not the ignition switch

 

It seems we have 2 conditions to check.

The first is why when you move the shift lever a certain way the dash works. What usually causes that is a poor ground connection to the inside of the vehicle and when you move the shift lever it could be providing the necessary ground for the dash. There should be a ground wire from the sheet metal by the driver's side door that provides the ground path for the dash. ALSO, make sure the ground from the battery to the sheet metal of the vehicle is clean and tight. Everything that operates inside the vehicle uses that ground path. There is usually a heavy gauge cable that goes from the battery to the engine. Then there is also a wire that also comes from that battery negative terminal that goes to a connection to the sheet metal. It can be to the radiator support and sometimes to the firewall. Look for it , remove it and clean it , then reinstall it.

If you connect your voltmeter to the battery terminals , at the battery, it should read battery voltage 12.4+volts. what does your meter read with the voltmeter still connected to the battery when you are attempting to start the engine ? It should not drop below 9.6 volts. Does it ? Yes/No

 

If your steering column shrouds are currently removed, please attach 2 photos here, 1 to be taken from the top, 2nd one from front/bottom, right below your ignition lock cylinder.
Since your 6month old battery never really get a chance to charge, do you have a noco/ctek charger you can slow charge it now before going further on testing other issues? Not trying to keep it top-notch but you have been starting only for so many times, and no charging to compensate the drop of voltage (discharge), that can kill your battery soon.

 

Battery’s good ground is good. Dashboard won’t even come on when I pull it a certain way anymore. Could it be a bad instrument cluster causing the problems?

 

The one way to verify is to remove the dash assy and verify power is getting to the plug that plugs into the dash and go from there..
Problem could be there or if power is available there, could be with printed circuit board.

Don't forget there are 2 parts of every circuit, POWER & GROUND, make sure both are available and functioning ,Meter or test lamp can be used to do this..