Hello all,

So last week I was driving my Ranger (3.0 Automatic) and suddenly my Speedo stopped working, my airbag light started flashing the held solid, and I started to smell a burning scent inside. Later I found out my wipers, seatbelt warning sound, headlamp, headlight warning sound are also out. Read about fuse 26 and sure enough it was blown. Went to replace it and it blows instantly.

I took the radio out to locate a short but haven’t had any luck. Next I’ll take apart the rest of the dash. I unplugged the GEM and tested the fuse and it still blew one. Also removed the headlamp just in case the short was located there but found nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

Welcome to the forum

2003 Power diagrams below, 2001 and 2002 are the same

Page 1 has cab fuse 26 wiring

Battery Saver Relay is in Relay Box 1 which is above the gas pedal and faces out towards Parking brake pedal, it has a cover over it
Layout of relays in the box changes with Options but this is the general plan: https://ww2-secure.justanswer.com/up...relays_one.gif
Pull out Battery saver relay and test if fuse blows

Battery Saver relay powers the dome and courtesy lights in the cab, GEM controls it, GEM will turn off the relay after 30min or so when vehicle is parked, in case a light was left on so it wouldn't drain the battery

You can save on fuses by using a Volt/Ohm meter
With fuse 26 out set Volt meter for DC Volts and test both terminals for fuse 26, only 1 will have 12volts, thats the power from Fuse 1(50amp) in engine fuse box

You want to test the OTHER terminal with OHM meter, this terminal has the short to Ground
Set Meter to OHMs, and touch both probes together, display should change to 0 ohms, that's a dead short between probes
Now put 1 probe on terminal and 1 probe on any ground close by, i.e. bolt head to metal cab part
Should see close to 0 ohms if there is short to ground, so fuse would blow
Unplug any wires shown in diagram and retest each time
When ohms go above say 50 you found the issue

 

RonD….
Thanks for following up. OHMs read 0.9 (I thought ohm reading shows distance to short and 0 meant it was ok?), Pulled out battery saver and cabin fuse (just in case) still blew the fuse.

 

0 OHMs means no resistance between the 2 points tested
If there is no resistance then AMP draw is only limited by the fuse OR wire size, lol, so blown fuse or melted wire, fuses are there to prevent melted wires

A wire can only handle limited AMPs, based on its size, if the fuse doesn't blow then the wire heats up and insulation starts to melt, what you smell

Battery Cables for starter motor need to handle 50-75amps, so are bigger wires

So if battery saver relay was out and fuse blew then only 3 wires left
while/yellow to GEM
white/yellow to airbag module(RCM), thread here tells you where the RCM is located in a 2002 Ranger: https://www.ranger-forums.com/genera...ocation-94508/
white/yellow to Cluster

It can be the actual wire not the device that's shorted to ground

 

Update….Removed the dash/cluster and toned out all my wires (White &Yellow) associated with fuse 26. Seems to be the Restraint Control Module causing the short. Any idea on where this is located???? Fuse stays alive when I splice back everything except for that wire.

Edit..RonD thanks for all the info. Will be diagnosing the RCM tomorrow. Thanks!!

 

Soooo….I started putting everything back together and as soon as I plugged in the bottom clip to the cluster (contains Speedo wire) the fuse blew instantly. Any help on identifying to cause within the cluster.

Cluster is blowing fuse 26

Edit: Found a resistor (390 OHMs) only giving me 120-140.

 

1996-2003 Ranger clusters are interchangeable, easy to find and not expensive
And these years are plug and play, white or black face
All Rangers are wired for tachometers so if you don't have a tach now, you can swap in a cluster with a tach and it will work

Yes, you can go thru and test speedometer circuit and hopefully find a bad part, but.....................I would check for used cluster at wrecking yard or ebay to see what your time is worth

2002 Cluster diagram below
White/yellow on pin7 is 12v from fuse 26
The black/white on pin2(different connector) is the ground for speedo, and other gauges
If you put an OHM meter between those two pins on the cluster you will probably get 0 or low ohms because there is a short in speedo circuit
If short can be found and removed then OHM will go up, but could be the speedo motor itself so.........................

 

Update: Just replaced the cluster. All my cabin lights come on, door ajar signal is active, windshield wipers work….speedo still not working? No fuses are blown.

 

Speed signal for speedometer comes from the Computer(PCM) in 2002

Does odometer work?
If so speedometer motor is bad, speedo/odo share the 1 wire speed signal

If neither work then check PCM for P0500 code, if no P0500 then wire from PCM pin 68 to cluster is bad, grey/black stripe wire
Grey/black wire is on pin 1 of "center connector" on cluster, only grey/black wire on cluster

The one wire from PCM pin 68 splits and runs to cluster and GEM, and if 4x4 it also runs to 4x4CM
Don't know where the splice/split is

You can get a long wire to test pin58 to cluster pin 1, with Ohm Meter, to see if wire is OK

Its possible the PCM is not outputting a speed signal, unhook battery for 5min or longer, hook it back up, this will reboot factory software