And yet another problem with my 89

[CTaylor]

Didn't even make it to the weekend to complete my injection pump and injector replacement before I had another issue pop up this morning.

Went out to go to work and turn the key and nothing. No message center lights, no head lights and no taillights and definitely no start. I have ruled out the battery with a load tester. The truck started and rain great the evening before when I went home from work.

What would cause a complete loss of all power like this? I pulled all the awful tape crap off the wires on the driver fender well to look at the fuseable links but honestly I suck at electronics and don’t know it. What do I look for, am I on the right track?

 

[DonFitzwater]

Always go to the grounds...................Your fusible links look good.

 

[DonFitzwater]

That splice in the third picture looks horrible.

 

[TFucili]

My buddy just had a similar experience with his 4 Runner trail rig. Ended up being poor connection at battery ground.

 

[Timd32]

Is this the same truck with the odd grounds?

Did you ever get a chance to review the negative side of the battery cables? Maybe something has become disconnected on the neg side.

https://www.turbodieselregister.com...-previous-owner-did-this.260324/#post-2532579

The prior owner may have done this due to bad grounds between the cab and engine. That wire can be a ground loop: a bad thing. Cut it short from the regulator and ground it to the firewall or take it off completely. The best way to add grounds is a battery cable sized strap from the engine to the frame and engine to body.

If you run the frame and body straps to the negative terminal of the battery (never do this) consider what happens if the battery to engine cable fails or gets high resistance: hit the 10HP starter asking 800+ CCA. The current isn't going through the failed battery to engine cable so it goes through the body and frame straps from the battery, but, it still has to get to the starter on the engine so it arc welds bearings, burns up small ground wires, or catches them on fire on the way from the body/frame to the engine. If you properly ground engine to body and engine to frame the negative battery cable failing stops everything.


One other thing: ground things away from the electrically noisy alternator. Also don't double duty existing ground locations with the ground straps. Put the grounds elsewhere on their own bolt. If you don't the ground wires become antennas and the radio can pickup noise that is normally dissipated into the larger ground body. ECM's are also affected by putting other grounds on theirs.

 

[CTaylor]

Is this the same truck with the odd grounds?

Did you ever get a chance to review the negative side of the battery cables? Maybe something has become disconnected on the neg side.

https://www.turbodieselregister.com...-previous-owner-did-this.260324/#post-2532579

This is a different one. The one with that extra ground going from the alt to the firewall is one of my 91 W250's.

 

[CTaylor]

Always go to the grounds...................Your fusible links look good.

I checked the block ground and the one near the radiator on the driver side attached to the core support and both seem good. That splice threw me off. it was wrapped in the same tough black fabric tape as the other wires, I was wondering if that was factory and what that was for

 

[Timd32]

Trying to find a diagram on google I stumbled on autozone has troubleshooting guides.

Does not work on my phone with any browser, chrome, firefox, samsung, but if you dont have a FSM they have "some" wire diagrams might help you out trace back some wires. It appears there are some common feeds off a few of those fusible links it sounds like if you have good grounds on the battery there could be a very simple answer.

Does anything work on the truck?

Lots of similar posts, search "electrical failure" in the 1st Gen Forum and 1st Gen Forum and click "child" something or other that is near the search box.

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/threads/93-dodge-electrical-failure.43151/

 

[CTaylor]

Trying to find a diagram on google I stumbled on autozone has troubleshooting guides.

Does not work on my phone with any browser, chrome, firefox, samsung, but if you dont have a FSM they have "some" wire diagrams might help you out trace back some wires. It appears there are some common feeds off a few of those fusible links it sounds like if you have good grounds on the battery there could be a very simple answer.

Does anything work on the truck?

Lots of similar posts, search "electrical failure" in the 1st Gen Forum and 1st Gen Forum and click "child" something or other that is near the search box.

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/threads/93-dodge-electrical-failure.43151/

Nothing at all works on the truck.

 

[DonFitzwater]

Start testing for voltage...........start at the battery and work your way through the cables in a methodical manner working in the path of flow.

 

[EDankievitch]

I had this happen on my 89 way back when. Living in the Salt belt both road and ocean took out my wiring. you are on the right track digging into the wiring harness by the Batt. My only solution was to replace the wiring harness under the hood. wasn't cheap back in 1998 but was the only option. Dodge said the harness was discontinued and no longer available. it took some digging biut I found that the Wearhouse had 10 in stock . It only took about an hour to install once I got it. The new harness was much better sealed to the environment and lasted.

 

[CTaylor]

ok so today at work I pondered the possibility of a bad battery cable so when I got home used a set of jumper cables and ran from battery neg to block ground and still nothing. Did the same with the positive and nothing.

I took my test probe and checked the positive cable and all the wires that stem from it including the ducks foot plug and they all are hot. I checked the fusible links before and after the fuse part and have power on all of them.

I then took a remote trigger starter and attached it to the starter and it will turn over with that.

What am I missing? Even looked around under the dash best I could before it got to dark and do not see any obvious burnt wires. Looked at the little fuse block and don't see anything fuse wise that I would think could cause a total shut down?

 

[Timd32]

ok so today at work I pondered the possibility of a bad battery cable so when I got home used a set of jumper cables and ran from battery neg to block ground and still nothing. Did the same with the positive and nothing.

I took my test probe and checked the positive cable and all the wires that stem from it including the ducks foot plug and they all are hot. I checked the fusible links before and after the fuse part and have power on all of them.

I then took a remote trigger starter and attached it to the starter and it will turn over with that.

What am I missing? Even looked around under the dash best I could before it got to dark and do not see any obvious burnt wires. Looked at the little fuse block and don't see anything fuse wise that I would think could cause a total shut down?

Broken wire from the output of the fusible link thru to to the fuse box? Maybe it cut at the firewall but not grounded so would not clear the fusible link.

Do you have any power in at the fuse blocks?

If so could be broken fuse box bus bar connection the part that would be common to the hot side of the fuses?

Do you have a diagram you can post, I still cant figure out thay Autozone link from my phone, and all the other forums the pics are so fuzzy its useless.

You could carefully run a fused jumper from the batt to the fuse box that would elminate the harness issues.

Looks like these harnesses are pretty rough.

I found so many of the same issue posts that have no resolution to them.

 

[Timd32]

I've posted this before but this was my WIF sensor wire on the right side it had 4 or 5 connections all crimped together and then someone twisted it off with the filter.

So wiring is not some folks strong points for sure.

My reworked version on the left with some Molex weatherpak style connectors. All it takes and some time and patience to do it right.

Your on the right path its the wiring or grounding. Since it cranks with the jumper button you have some sort of ground, so Im kinda leaning towards bad wiring from that junction mess to the fusible links to the fuse box area.

 

[CTaylor]

Did some more probing this morning, the fuel shut off solenoid doesn't have power with key on. The hot lug on the alternator has power. I also probed some wires under the dash with key off and touched the fuses and they are hot. When I turn the key on I have no power coming into or leaving the ducks foot plug. It appears the larger gauge black wire that has that awful looking copper crimp sleeve junction on it runs across the firewall to the alternator .

With the key off that wire is hot all the way across to the back of the alt where it attaches to the 3 studs at that rectangular block on the back of the alt. With the key on its dead and the hot stud on the back of the alt isn't powered up then either

 

[DonFitzwater]

it Could be the switch in the dash. There is a rod that links from the key switch down to the box in the dash and it controls starting and power to a lot of things......I’m going off of memory here so sorry for being so vague

 

[Timd32]

This will be your new best friend. Best $35 you can spend. I could not find a pdf download version for purchase anywhere.

https://www.genosgarage.com/product/dfsm89-cd/dodgeram-factory-service-manual

 

[CTaylor]

I replaced the ignition switch on the column and still noting. My last trick today is going to be cutting one at a time the fusible links out replacing with a pre-wired fuse holder setup they sell in the electrical section at the parts house. What size fuses should I go with to start for the replacement of the links?

 

[EDankievitch]

A "Greened out" wire connection will show potential (Voltage) but will not allow any current (amps) to flow through it. All those very poor crimp connections are suspect. That is what I had happen to my 89 way back in the day. I'll bet if you start flexing the wires at the crimp connections you will find a badly corroded one or two even maybe a few broken wires. The real issue is there are many of those crimp connections in the harness. I found it easier to just replace the whole harness than keep chasing one problem to the next. Here in the salt belt I've seen where the salt will wick into the wire and while it will look good on the outside when you cut it open it will be bad. "Greened out" copper will not conduct current.

 

[CTaylor]

Found the culprit of all of this finally. It was the little plug that comes right off the positive cable. It was taped up on this truck and while I had probed it and it had power downstream of it when I had probed it earlier after lifting it up to do so it didn’t when I had a second set of eyes look at it. It was loaded up with green. I cut it out and used a but connector on at everything works again. I’m going to start gathering parts to redo both battery cables and get rid of that foot and a half of hell from the battery to the bulkhead and use a circut breaker setup like shown in one of the reply posts