Waste tank and water tank panel lights not working

[RedsToy]

Hello Experts,
I've done alot of trouble shooting but apparently not enough. I have no test lights to just my levels panel. I cannot figure out what it is. I've checked all fuses in the motorhome and have not found any bad ones. Battery's are charged up and fine. Why would there be no power to just the part of the panel where it tells me how full the tanks and my batteries are? Any advice appreciated. 2004 Damon Challenger. 8.1 workhorse.

 

[Rene T]

Do you have mice issues?

 

[RedsToy]

Do you have mice issues?

 

[RedsToy]

Surprisingly, not any mice. But I'm waiting as winter is starting to rear it's ugly head!

 

[RedsToy]

I've been searchin high and low for the wiring diagram for the fuse box under the dash. 2004 Damon Challenger 8.1 workhorse. I'm thinking I'm going to have to trace from the sensor panel to one of the fuse boxes. Even though I went thru every fuse in the boxes. I'm hoping it's not a short somewhere as I have no way of tracing where the short is if there is one. I don't have the tool that does that stuff.

 

[CharlesinGA]

If you are looking at the fuse panel under the dash, you are looking in the wrong place. That is the fuse panel for the Workhorse chassis only. The fuses for the coach/house part, are in the power panel, most likely adjacent to the 120v AC circuit breakers. There will be about a dozen fuses in a row, those are the ones for the coach interior lights, control circuits, sensors, etc.

Charles

 

[Kirk]

Why would there be no power to just the part of the panel where it tells me how full the tanks and my batteries are?

The answer may be in the display panel somewhere as there are no lights unless power gets to the buttons in the waste tanks. Have you pulled the display panel out and checked the power in the back of it?

 

[JayArr]

Pic of the display panel so we can see who made it?

KIB?

 

[thelazyl]

This might be a long shot but during my last trip I noticed not all of the sensors on my EMS panel were working. Also noticed the readout panel on the microwave was not working but when I opened the door the light was. It turned out to be a bad 50 amp outlet at the campground.

 

[RedsToy]

If you are looking at the fuse panel under the dash, you are looking in the wrong place. That is the fuse panel for the Workhorse chassis only. The fuses for the coach/house part, are in the power panel, most likely adjacent to the 120v AC circuit breakers. There will be about a dozen fuses in a row, those are the ones for the coach interior lights, control circuits, sensors, etc.

Charles

Hey Thanks Charles. I'm new to this stuff so I'm learning. The other panels I checked were in the engine bay and the ones in the back bedroom area. There are ones that light up with a red light next to the fuse if it's out. Nothing showing red, but I still pulled everyone and eyeballed them to make sure. Next to that panel there is the Breakers and none of them are tripped. I even tripped the main to see if it would reset anything and no luck. Hmmm now what?

 

[RedsToy]

The answer may be in the display panel somewhere as there are no lights unless power gets to the buttons in the waste tanks. Have you pulled the display panel out and checked the power in the back of it?

Thanks Kirk,
I'm not sure which one is the power cord. There is a bundle of wires that are all sorts of colors. I'm going to assume that the black is the power, white is neutral. And the others are for the board. Let me know what you think. Thanks

 

[RedsToy]

This might be a long shot but during my last trip I noticed not all of the sensors on my EMS panel were working. Also noticed the readout panel on the microwave was not working but when I opened the door the light was. It turned out to be a bad 50 amp outlet at the campground.

Hmmm, I've got a surge protector and a tester in line before it gets into the motorhome. I've got good test lights on the tester / S. protector.

 

[RedsToy]

The answer may be in the display panel somewhere as there are no lights unless power gets to the buttons in the waste tanks. Have you pulled the display panel out and checked the power in the back of it?

Kirk. I have pulled it out. That's where I noticed a small brown wire not connected to anything. It was stripped at the end to connect to another wire but I have no way of knowing where it came loose from?

 

[Kirk]

Unfortunately there is no standardized wire color code in the RV industry, so it is impossible to figure it out by guessing. If you have a volt/ohm meter you can probably make progress by taking readings. If you do not then the minimum you need for this sort of troubleshooting is one of the 12V lights for automotive use.

I've got a surge protector and a tester in line before it gets into the motorhome.

The indicator panel is 12V so the shore power monitor will have nothing to do with this problem and loss of one side wouldn't either.

That's where I noticed a small brown wire not connected to anything.

You need to determine if there is 12V to that wire. If you test from that stripped part to ground and it has 12V that is probably the issue but you need to know in order to have much chance to repair it. What your description makes me suspect is that the wire has pulled out of some type of pin or connector. That can happen with crimped on connectors or pins in a removable plug.
If you could post a picture of the back of that panel it might give us enough information to be helpful.

 

[John From Detroit]

Might be as simple as a dirty switch

Before you do anythign remove all power (Disconnect battery) verify no power to panel
Hit button 50 times and restore power and try again.

IF it works.. Fantastic. If not, at least it was free.

 

[RedsToy]

Sorry for the delay in answering. But I finally called out the professional crew from the nearest Motorhome place. They came out and worked on it till they found the problem. The control panel had to be replaced. The tech was just as confused as I was. The panel had partial power but would not control some functions. He was pretty understanding of why I was so confused. But, it got fixed. Dang it all anyways. I hate when I can't figure something out. Must be a dude thing. Thanks for all the advice and now until another issue. This issue is the slider does not close tight at the bottom. Opens fine and goes in fine, just won't pull all the way tight.

 

[Kirk]

Opens fine and goes in fine, just won't pull all the way tight.

Have you looked for adjustments on the slide mechanism? Sounds like an adjustment to me.