Where there's smoke....Black Out Drive switch secretly wants to kill me

[173RD]

Hi all, this is my very first post on SS

I just bought a ??year 5 ton which was reset by Red River Depot in 2009. The truck's odometer read 199 miles when I picked it up. After getting it home Friday and going through it a bit more thoroughly, I switched the Blackout Drive switch on. Holy Smoke Batman! A noxious cloud of other-worldly fumes began pouring from the back of the switch along with a faint frying sound. I couldn't believe just how quickly the smoke billowed out as I frantically tried to fumble the switch to the off position. Unfortunately, my wife was sitting in the passenger seat at the time and managed to witness a portion of the flying hands scenario. I say a portion, because as I was working at a fever-pitch, she launched herself past me and executed a perfect Parachute Landing Fall (PLF). Needless to say, this put a huge damper on the Truck-Wife relationship that I can repair only with flowers and dinner at PF Chang's.

So what do you all think? Bare wire back there, or mis-wired switch?

On another note, the oil pressure won't hold in idle...when it fires up, the oil pressure is great, and when rolling down the road, the pressure is fine, but a warm idle takes the pressure down to near zero...I suppose a trip to the truck shop is in order. Any guesses on this problem?

Thanks in advance for your support!

 

[DIndFab]

The oil pressure seems to be a bad sending unit from reading others posts on here. Good luck with the truck!

 

[5tonman1971]

My m813 did this with my black out lights but instead of the cab it was my brand new (to me) grote led tail lights that let out the mystic white smoke of death. There's a very good chance that the switch is now fried and hopefully only the switch. I've yet to diagnose my issue I'm sure it's just the tail lights. But you will want to get a new light switch and diagnose from there or just not use the black outs since you will never need them and probably don't have infrared goggles.

The be oil pressure is very common problem. This can be remedy by removing the oil pressure sending unit and cleaning with brake clean and reinstalling and it should work fine but it would be a good idea to just go ahead and replace it. I would also go pic up a mechanical oil pressure gauge to verify good pressure just to be on the safe side. You can also T it in and leave it for a back up.

 

[wheelspinner]

Which switch is it? Although there are those who like the push button switch, it has been associated with its inability to hold in its smoke on several occasions. If its one of those, get rid of it. The old reliable 3 lever is easy to operate and has rock solid reliability. Those are two reasons alone for me to never change something.