Installed tow mirrors & now them & radio won’t work

[CHudacko]

Hi all,

I recently installed an aftermarket brand tow mirrors on my’02 and for a couple of days the power adjustment feature worked a long with the factory radio, but last night I needed to adjust the passenger side. It moved briefly and stopped, I tried the other and movement there either, so I figured I could blew a fuse except there isn’t any fuse location marked for mirrors. This morning I noticed that the radio was dead as well, so I checked it’s fuse and it’s good.
Any ideas where I should start looking? I’m a three day drive from home & my service manuals.It’s going to be a long drive without any tunes, to drown out the exhaust whine.

Thanks in advance,
Charles

 

[Tractorat]

Are there any other gadgets that dont work ? Door locks ? Electric windows ? etc

 

[CHudacko]

Nope everything else works find and I can’t find any blown fuses.

 

[DavidC]

This is a 99 fuse #12 also powers radio. Looks like it is in the fuse block on side of dash

 

[DavidC]

I just looked and a 01 is the same so 02 probably same

 

[CHudacko]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies so far! I was able to recheck the fuses this morning and it took me a few minutes to figure how to get the #12 fuse out of the extra plastic cage thing around it and found it was indeed blown. I replaced it with a new 10 amp and the radio did come on until I tried to adjust the mirrors, at which the fuse blew again, I then tried a 15 amp with the same results.
So obviously I have a short somewhere that I’ll dig into once I get home in a few days. As an aside the aftermarket mirrors are the Cool-View brand that are the correct application for the 1998-2002 2500/3500 trucks.
But for the road trip home I’ll put a piece of tape over the mirror adjustment knob to not use it and manually adjust the mirrors to my liking and have a working radio.

So thanks again for the help last night and in general, if it wasn’t for the forums access I probably wouldn’t have renewed my yearly membership to the club and magazine, a few years ago,as I’m not like most members who replace their older trucks for a newer one, I’m quite happy with my current one and look forward to keeping for as long I can.

Charles

 

[Joe Mc]

Charles,

When you get home I suggest locating another power source, perhaps a tap on one of the batteries for hot and neutral "and" add a fuse to the power line for your mirrors. This way if there's a short the fuse will blow and you'll have easy access "and" you won't have no sounds. No sounds stacks right up there with no a/c, IMHO. Although with no a/c you can put the windows down you have to stop sometime, but with no sounds a drive for 10 minutes or so can seem like an eternity...
For $35/year I've found the TDR ranks up there with the top 5 things I've spent my $$$ on since I acquired my 99 with 75k in 05/2001, she's just now broken in @ 245 and going strong. "Long live the Cummins!

 

[PBJ2500CTD]

Review your wire routing around the mounting bolts. That is a VERY susceptible location for pinched wires. The routing must be laid precisely through the channels or they WILL be easily and readily pinched and shorted to ground.

 

[Terry]

Its very common to pinch the wires at the mirror, you need to take it apart again and take a look.

 

[MLee]

I took my wiring harness through the backing plate in the middle, no pinch here. If you took the harness under the backing plate this is where you get pinched wires on the mirror install.