Hiya everyone.

New to posting, but I've been referring more and more to this forum since I got Jasper. He's a 1985 Ford F-150 that I rescued from 2 boys who were, in their words 'trickin' it OUT!'.

They did very poorly. Thankfully.

However, the issue I'm currently attempting to work on is the fact that I have NO tail-lights or license plate lights. No dash lights either, but.... I do have brake lights and turn lights in the rear, just no tail. I replaced all the bulbs, and they still don't work. I replaced the fuse, and it blew instantly. So I'm figuring it's something to do with the wires.

When I got up under Jasper to take a look, I saw that they had used household electrical wiring in spots. WTF??

So I called several shops, and they all said that it would take 3 to 4 days to find the problem and repair it, and I'm lookin at $88 an hour for labor. I can't afford that. So I decided to try to tackle this on my own.

Did I mention that I don't know clue 1 about electrical systems?

So I would GREATLY appriciate it if someone would be so kind to point me in the right direction. Do I need to totally rewire this thing, or can I use some trick to try to fix it?

Also, one mechanic told me to see if it was grounded? How do I do that? And, I may be a total girl here, but what's the odds of being electrocuted doing this?

 

It sounds like you have a short in the wiring as it is blowing fuses. Check the wiring visually first, and then use an ohm meter to check for continuity in the wires. I would also suggest buying a book with wiring diagrams for wire colors. Start there and let us know.

And welcome.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silver_Blaze

1985 Ford F-150 that I rescued from 2 boys who were, in their words 'trickin' it OUT!'.

Oyyyy.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silver_Blaze

However, the issue I'm currently attempting to work on is the fact that I have NO tail-lights or license plate lights. No dash lights either, but.... I do have brake lights and turn lights in the rear, just no tail. I replaced all the bulbs, and they still don't work. I replaced the fuse, and it blew instantly. So I'm figuring it's something to do with the wires.

Something is shorted out (grounding)....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silver_Blaze

When I got up under Jasper to take a look, I saw that they had used household electrical wiring in spots. WTF??

Therein is my first suspicion as to the cause of your problem....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silver_Blaze

...So I decided to try to tackle this on my own.

Did I mention that I don't know clue 1 about electrical systems?

Seems you're gonna learn!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silver_Blaze

.So I would GREATLY appriciate it if someone would be so kind to point me in the right direction. Do I need to totally rewire this thing, or can I use some trick to try to fix it?

Also, one mechanic told me to see if it was grounded? How do I do that? And, I may be a total girl here, but what's the odds of being electrocuted doing this?

First things first... Get yourself a factory wiring diagram; they're sometimes on
eBay and various places sell reprints (search this forum for "factory shop
manual" (with quotes) for pointers to places that might sell 'em).

I bought some stuff from these people and am more than satisfied, here's what
they have for you:
Lloyds Auto Liturature available for 1985, Fordtruck, Wiring Diagrams

Note, please DO NOT rely on a Haynes or Chilton's for this! You will
understand why in time.

No, you don't need to rewire the entire thing (unless the entire thing has been
"tricked out") but you *do* need to spend some time with it. I'd begin with
what was changed since it came out of the factory, investigate that closely (i.e.
look closely at what the children have done).

No, you're not gonna electrocute yourself or anything, don't worry about that.

Get yourself a test light, too - looks like a screwdriver with a pointed tip
(instead of a blade or Phillips head), it has a light in the handle and a coiled
length of wire coming out of the handle with an Alligator clip on the end.
Connect the Alligator clip to a ground, probe around with the tip and the
handle lights up when you hit power.

 

Generally the factory wirnig is still good on these years, all the factory wiring is color coded, meaning each wire for a specfic job ( brake, tail light, turn etc.) has its own color. I would check where they spliced the household wiring in the factory wiring. check the wire color of the factory wiring going to what color of spliced wire, and see if that wire is connected to same color of factory wire down the length of wire harness. When it blows a fuse it means the power wire of that system say tail lights is touching or wired to ground.(touching the frame or a ground wire going back to the negative post of the battery.) ground wires are usually white in color on american vehicles imports are any bodys guess.. And no you will not be electrocuted, 12 volt systems will make a big spark but nothing worse, unless it is where gas is present.
Are you still in school? the reason I ask lots of time you can get some help from the auto shop. Even if you arn't it would be worth talking to the shop teacher as lots of them would love a simple project such as yours to fix.. Just a thought..

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamebuster

...ground wires are usually white in color on american vehicles

Huh????? Every ground on any Ford of this era I've seen uses black for this,
generally nothing else (excluding certain radios).

 

My bad, ...no excuse, except do more semi's than cars. white ground, brown tail and clearance, green right turn, yellow left turn, . red, black and blue vary on trucks for hot, brake and marker.Found Chevs same..Thanks for the correction but solution will be the same.
also believe all problems will be the same, tail lights, license plate light and dash lights are the same circuit. unless Ford is different here too.

 

Good to know!! That actually makes me feel better...that means hopefully, I won't have to spend FOREVER doing this!

No, I'm out of school. I've tried reaching the vocational auto shop a few times, because I'd also like to see what they'd charge for a paint-job, but I just keep getting voice mails. I leave messages, and they're never returned, so bleg. I'll try again...if nothing else, it would be a good example of locating and correcting. ^_^

Thanks!! I'll check out that link...I have a Haynes for it, but I look at the wiring diagram and feel like I'm reading Japanese or something...

I'm not afraid to learn, I'm just afraid of doing something that will cause severe, if not irreversable damage. I've seen that meter that you were talking about at Advance...they also have 'kits' for repairing wires...any idea how good those are?

One more question: Any idea what gauge wire I'll need? I'm seeing everything from 10 to 30 gauge....or will that book explain?

Thanks so much guys! I doubted it, but I still half-expected to get laughed at for this...it seems so dumb, but I'm just starting to learn about cars and how to work on them. I'm tired of relying on mechanic who seems to think *****=stupid + gulible, so I'm getting my own hands greasy.

*laughs* Still a heck of a learning experience though. Trust me, I have a feeling there will be more posts in the future! I've not figured out everything those kids did to this poor truck, but I'm slowly undoing what they did!

 

Ford is always solid black for ground, Except the trailer wiring harness if equipped. Then it uses the universal color white for that section only.

They are a seperate circut.

Front parking, marker, Taillights and License Plate lights are one circut. Brown wire.

Dash lights are another circut, Blue/Red stripe wire.

But both of these circuts connect in the headlamp switch.

 

that figures.....I got to get some ford books since that seems to be what I buy lately, but the new ones havn't had any problems yet. And I crawled under the old chevs and they are black ground except at the trailer adapter..Did like the dash and taillights on one fuse thou, if you had no dash lights you knew you lost the taillights too....

 

14 gauge will work fine but you can use larger wire like 12 gauge without any problems. The wiring splice kits are ok the crimpers are a POS as they will start bending and not do a good job crimping. Sealing the wire splice is most important to keep moisture out, the best way is to solder the connection, although you will get several years out of regular crimp connections. Shrink tubing helps too keep the moisture out and protect the connection from corrosion.
It is good for everyone to at least know the basics of mechanics and electrical so my hats off to you. And welcome to FTE.

 

Just a suggestion ... If the previous owner has made a TOTAL HASH of the harness ... It might be faster, easier and cheaper ... if you can go to a U PULL IT type of junk yard ...

Find a truck like yours that hasn't had the rear section of the harness hacked into ... carefully remove that harness ... remove the bad harness in your truck and splice the "new" one into your truck.

Its not hard to take out ... just crawl under the truck ... somewhere under the bed ... and BEHIND the fuel tank (!) reach up into the chassis ... cut the harness.

Then following the harness you'll find places where the harness has been attached to the chassis with nylon or plastic joiners ... most of these joiners push through holes drilled into the chassis ... you'll see their little fingers sticking through the holes on the out side of the chassis rail ... pinch the fingers together and push them through the hole ... or just cut them off.

Remove the taillight lenses ... two screws through the lenses ... two sneaky screws lurking between the bed and the tailgate ... you'll have to drop the gate to access them. Remove the tail light bulb sockets from the lens ... you see more of them plastic hangers securing the harness to the bed ... deal with them as before.

Same with the two license plate bulb sockets.

The last third of the harness should come out in one piece.



Then its just a matter of removing your harness ... but cut yours so you have about a foot of harness longer then you'll need.

Then its just a matter of putting the new harness into place ... unraveling the electrical from the cut ends of the harness ... matching the colors ... and making about 5 wire splices.

No muss, no fuss. Nothing to figure out.

PLEASE make sure that the Junk Yard Harness has NOT been cut into. ... Not even for trailer lights ... or you'll end up with the same problem you got now!