Chasing a Short

[moparmike98]

Driving down the road the other day I lost my blinkers and emergency flashers. Looking at the fuse block the radio and b/up lamps fuse blows as soon as you turn the key to run position. Any ideas or diagrams. The headlights function and so does the switch. There's an aftermarket radio in but I believe I've disconnected it and it still blows the fuse. Any advise? I'm not much of an electrician but manage. How do I track this down

 

[circlepilot]

Driving down the road the other day I lost my blinkers and emergency flashers. Looking at the fuse block the radio and b/up lamps fuse blows as soon as you turn the key to run position. Any ideas or diagrams. The headlights function and so does the switch. There's an aftermarket radio in but I believe I've disconnected it and it still blows the fuse. Any advise? I'm not much of an electrician but manage. How do I track this down

Looking at the diagram...I would start with the backup switch on the transmission. It may have a broken or chafed wire, that is grounding out. If OK, go to the trunk area and see if a wire to the backup lights are broken or chafed, grounding out. I'm sure more help is on the way. Keep us posted about what you find.
Norm

 

[67Dart273]

Go download a service manual and it should list everything that is on a particular fuse. That very manual at MyMopar came from one of the guys right here

Looks to me like you have more than one fuse involved. Maybe there's a crossed short inside the harness, like, maybe, the rear seat smashed the harness, etc.

standby...........

Page 8-127

 

[TrailBeast]

It's also possible the connector under the left kick panel for all the rear lighting got smashed.

Actually that's probably one of the first things I would do is to disconnect the rear harness and see if it still blows fuses.
If not the problem is in the back half of the wiring so it narrows things down quick.

 

[LO23M8B]

First have you replaced any light bulbs lately? If so check what you changed, the bulb could be in incorrectly or broken and grounding out. Then what I would do on this as there are a few things on this fuse use the fuse list above and disconnect all the easy things on the list and see if it blows. If it does keep disconnecting till you have everything unhooked. If it doesn't blow then connect one thing at a time till you find what circuit it's on. Then look at the component and see if it looks like it got hot or any of the connectors. Then chase the wires. If it still blows if you just worked in a area go back there and look. Still going on use a wiring diagram and try to go back farther in the harness and see if you have any other disconnects and start there. Keep checking the wiring as you go on and you might see where the wire got hot or grounded. It's not all that hard just give it a try. Or you could use my brothers old method (I do NOT recommend it.) as a matter of fact I will not even say it. lol.

 

[RedFish]

As a service tech I would always start at whatever isn't OEM, like stereos, fog lamps, etc...

 

[LO23M8B]

You got that right. Or where they worked on it last.

 

[moparmike98]

Thank you guys for the help. I took out the aftermarket radio wiring because it didnt work anyway. That wasn't it. Isolated it to the rear harness and found it. Turned out to be a wire going to the top of the gas tank. All fixed up now.

 

[LO23M8B]

Thank you guys for the help. I took out the aftermarket radio wiring because it didnt work anyway. That wasn't it. Isolated it to the rear harness and found it. Turned out to be a wire going to the top of the gas tank. All fixed up now.

Nice place for a short. Glad you didn't have a gas leak.

 

[Demonic]

Turned out to be a wire going to the top of the gas tank. All fixed up now.

That would be the 3A fuse, it's the circuit off the IVR going to the fuel sender? Far right on the pic in post 3, "F". Shouldn't have bothered the lights.

 

[RedFish]

license plate lamp wire maybe. The fuse box is labeled inst for instrument lamps instead of illu for illumination. never knew why. Aviation thing maybe? anyway... That fuse doesn't feed the instrument voltage regulator.