As far as the tach, mine has been doing that for several moths now. Swapped alternator, no change. Went back to original Alternator. Tried putting dielectric grease on the connection at the alternator as someone had reported that cured the same issue for them, but it made no difference with mine. When I first start up my tach is totally dead, a little later it comes to life and usually woks fine but occasionally it gets to dropping totally to zero, bounces a few times and may or may not come back to life. I have learned to live with it while i save loose change for a ScanGuage.

Did you check fluid level on PS pump?

Didn't you have some issues after getting wet on an off-road trip recently? How did that work out if that was you?

 

Yea flooded engine at Rovers on The Rocks. new engine was the fix. Going to tear down old engine so hope I can put my finger on exactly what I broke. My guess is oil control ring. I picked up an engine from Joel at buckhorn imports from a 98 with 88k. Seems to be running fine got to 200 degrees 2 while bleeding coolant but seems fine now.

I have a scan gauge that's how I know my alt is bad. Truck ran on 9volts tonight but tach is still dead. Gonna pull it and have it tested probably pick up some parts when I go see the parts guy this week.

I refilled ps fluid seems to be fine maybe a tad low. Need to bleed it again. Will pick up spare ps pump while I'm at it.

Oh and I will be picking up a snorkel this week too, for the obvious reasons.

 

The tach has that little lead that plugs in to the back. That sends an AC voltage to the tach, it counts the frequency (about 280 Hetrz at idle, old school cycles per second), and moves the needle. You can read it with a volt meter. One poster had a problem with that lead getting grounded out somewhere in the harness. Battery was being charged, alternator worked, but tach was not getting drive. So if you are getting 13.8 to 14.2 volts across battery at idle, alternator is charging.

 

I was lucky to get 9 at idle. It had been dying when I pulled the jumper cables. Watched the volts drop on the scan gauge. When tach works I get full on power 13+ volts.. Wires look fine.. I'll have it tested and take it from there.

 

If existing alternator has no warranty, and you have the time, a local indy starter/alternator shop will do a better job rebuilding than the mass market guys. About $100 where I am. On the other hand, the mass market guys can give a lifetime warranty or a rebuilt, and you can seal that receipt in plastic and carry in the glove box, they have a high failure rate, but warranty would be good at any of their stores. Or DIY, it is usually the regulator/brushes, about $65 from BP Utah.

 

So the truck is offically running without being jumped!

Went and got an alternator, power steering pump, my new snorkel and some other goodies from my parts guy.

The power steering pumper I believe was also toast as it was making a strange knocking noise. I am not ruling out that a bolt may have been loose on the pulley but once I had the pulley off I figured might as well change it to be safe and keep the old one as a back up.

Engine to get hot once or twice again so continued to bleed it and at one point a huge bubble got stuck in rad and pushed the overflow tank coolant up, Pulled the rad cap and watched the coolant come back up. Heard the sloshing noise so I continued to bleed it a bit more.. Then it ran at 182-186 consistantly.

Just waiting for new engine mounts to show up and a new CKPS heat shield to show up and I should be back in business.

I get to install my snorkel this week too I am a happy dude