I just purchased a 1983 300SD . The guages ant tach worked when I test drove it and works on the drive home . I had to remove the loaner battery when I got it home . I later installed a new battery and sarted it the car but but no guages, no tach, no turn signals. I is allmost like changine the battery made this happen ? All of the other electrical stuff works ( windows , heater fan, headlights ). All fuses are OK . Before I go through the wiring diagram , I wanted to know where to look first if this is a somewhat common problem . - Thanks

I'll take a bet that one of them is not OK.

And, I'll take another bet that it's fuse #12.

I rechecked the fuses and fuse connections . The fuses are good and the connections are clean ( copper fuses too ) . Where do I find and online wiring diagram . (nothing at Skinnerbox or Braingears ) ? - Thanks

http://mb.braingears.com/126_DISC1/program/ETM/126td83-85.pdf

Make sure you use explorer.

About the problem - I went through the fuses again and found a hairline break at the very end #12 that I had overlooked . A new fuse did the trick . Also the PO had put a 25 amp fuse in there . I went back with an 8 amp per spec and will see what happens .

Brian - I generally use Firefox so I guess that's why those linkes did not work .

Thanks guys

I won my bet.

Help is what we do here.

A 25 amp fuse? Luckily a fire did not start because of that. That is crazy.

Glad to hear it is repaired. Sometimes those fuses look OK, even when they are not.

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2004 Toyota Sequoia Limited 4wd
1991 Lincoln Town Car Executive
1991 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1988 Mercedes 300SEL
1972 Chevrolet Caprice Kingswood Estate 9-passenger wagon
1973 Pontiac Grand Ville
(Prior MB's: 1974 240D, 1985 380SE, 1984 190D, 1993 400SEL)