(This is how I feel right now)

I have a 1985 Ford Ranger 4x4. Recently, the dash/tail light fuse would blow out ocasionally, but now I can't even put a fuse in - it blows out as soon as it's inserted.... I know I have a loose wire somewhere, and I'm sure it's because I moved at the beginning of November, and put a lot of weight on the bed, to the point where the shocks now need to be replaced... Where do the wires run? Does anyone have a diagram? Right now, I can't drive it past sundown! Please help!!

 

gingerbreadmaniac

Ok as every wiring harness problem is different it is hard to decide where the short is. I would start with the back because you say you had problems since you moved. I would start with pulling the tail lights out and checking to see what the sockets look like. than i would follow the wiring harness down the frame rail exposing it to see what shape it is in. There is unfortionatly no easy fix to this problem but use your judgement. Do you have trailer lights wired into your tail lights that could be a short very easily. also check your license plate lights. do all this and move to the front if you dont find anything. I had a similar problem with my 85 f150 but my taillights didnt work at all. It ended up being the factory ground wire wasnt grounding. I never did figure it out properly so i ended up re wiring the truck from the split in the harness to each tail light and i grounded everything straight to the frame. It was a time consuming job but wasnt really hard. Just take your 12 volt light tester and see what you can do.

I had a short somewhere on my 87 ranger thaT was killing my batt.I found that by disconnecting the ground on the batt. and hooking up my 12 volt light tester between the batt. and ground wire the tester came on with the ignition off. That means a short somewhere. So i started unhooking parts like starter lights heater fan etc. etc. If the light goes out thats what is shorting out. It ended up being the alternature. try this same scenario maybe and unhook your taillights,headlights,clearnace lights etc. one at a time.

This is about all i can tell you
but keep us posted and feel free to ask questions
cheow
"gingerbreadmaniac"
aka josh

 

(My current state of mind...)

Josh - thank you for responding. We checked it out yesterday, and tried a 30A fuse instead of the 15A that the diagram indicated - it seemed to work, and everything stayed lit running around last night...

However, I neglected to mention another odd thing: one of the relay switches near the computer (front right side in the cabin) had been making a sporadic ticking noise - we found that, removed it, and tried running the truck. It is now running better that before. I personally think it had something to do with the short - but I could be wrong. We are going to run the ID #'s to see what it is, and if we need to replace it, we will, and see what happens, but this truck used to have a plow on it, and it could very well be a vacuum control switch that might not be needed anymore.

I will let you know what happens.