Parasitic draw GEM, inst. cluster

[MinorThreat]

Parasitic draw GEM, inst. cluster - follow-up Q

I've found some similar threads that touched on this but wasn't central to others' problems.

Have a 98 2WD Ranger with the 4-banger and I've traced a parasitic draw to fuse 25 - - GEM, instrument cluster. It's pulling about 400mA. As soon as I pulled the fuse, the draw went down to a more 'normal' 20 mA or so. With the fuse pulled, most of the inst cluster display still reads, save for the speedo.

It's funny, because before I knew this circuit was a drain problem, I'd revived the speedo by repairing the speedo prong on the circuit board film on the cluster. The plug contact was corroded and the copper strip was burned or eaten away from plug contact (I soldered/spliced in a new copper strip)

So now I want to isolate the GEM to see if that is the culprit but don't know where it is. It sounds like it's the unit to the left side of the radio hole but want to know for sure. Can someone help?

 

[adsm08]

The GEM is the unit right next to the left of the radio. Should have two long flat plugs.

 

[MinorThreat]

Thanks for confirming that. Appreciate it.

 

[MinorThreat]

Was able to isolated the GEM as the culprit. Pulled the upper plug and the parasitic draw went away.

Now, one more dumb question: can I be pretty certain that the GEM itself is bad and not just a circuit connected to it (dome, etc.)? I'd hate to replace it and find the fault is still there.