No instruments on start-up

[Snomad]

Had an interesting one last weekend. After having been run for a short while I parked the machine. About an hour later I started it up again to move it and did not get any indications on the instrument panel at all -- no gas gauge, no tach needle routine, no warm up light. I put the machine into reverse and backed it up -- no backup beeper. Put it back into forward and moved the machine 15 feet to park it and all of a sudden all the instruments lit up, the warmup light was flashing and when I tried the reverse the beeper worked again. I haven't looked at the schematic yet but it's likely a relay contact that didn't make connection, probably the same circuit that keeps the headlights off while you're cranking it.

 

[hlmrx1]

That's happened to me a couple of times now. Seems worse when it's really cold. The first couple of times, I turn it off then started it back up. After a couple of tries everthing came on. The last time was last weekend again and this time I left it run and they came on by themselves but only after a while, like 60 to 120 seconds or so, which seems long compared to usual. There's a couple of posts on this site where others have reported the same problem.

 

[kmer]

I wonder if the relay is somehow configured to open after a minimum battery voltage? Perhaps the battery was a touch down and needed additional voltage to prove the relay.