Military Vehicle Repair: electrical problems, caprice police package, chevy caprice


Question
van, iknow this isnt about a chevy truck its about a 94 chevy caprice police package. i have analog gages and a digital spedo. the past few weeks ive been having trouble with not having any aircond. or spedo. when i start it up every thing else works as far as i know. used to be you could wiggle the key or tap on the dash and would come on. oh yea also when it would do dhis the volt guage was not working but when you would wiggle the key or tap the dash it would come up to where it was suposed to be and every thing worked. but the other day it wont come on anymore. still runs great but no air and no spedo. just dont know where to start as i dont know much about newer cars im about ready to gut it and put it in my 76 firebird. at least i know how to work on it .      thanks, russell

Answer
Hello Russell,
Sounds like a loose connection on the ignition switch, which is on the steering column, above the brake pedal, or just out of adjustment,(it is adjustable), or a bad switch.
Try hitting the steering wheel, and shaking the whole column.
If that doesn't work, go from connector to connector, wiggling them.
I'll send a link that is intended for repairing tilt columns, but touches on adjustment of the ignition switch.
If that was a police vehicle, it may have had a lot of key starts, so might suspect the switch.

http://www2.aros.net/~rbuck/column/tiltcol.html

Good luck,
Van