Howdy all:

New member here. Never content to leave well enough alone I've now "fixed" my Ranger to the point that it will no longer start. Let me tell you a story...

I took possession of a 1991 Ford Ranger XLT 4.0 that had been abandoned on family property and am passing it on to my stepson and his wife. She will be driving it across the country so I've been fixing it up in an attempt to make it more reliable. I didn't care for how the wipers were sometimes hard to turn off (the wiper control **** was a bit sloppy on the multifunction switch), so I figured I'd swap out the switch with an aftermarket one (I've done this without trouble on other vehicles). I took the column housing apart and swapped out the multifunction switch, wipers worked great! But the turn signals didn't do anything, nor did the hazard lights. I'd read that some of the aftermarket multifunction switches don't always work as described. So I put the old one back on, turn signals work and hazards worked fine (was testing this loose with column still apart). I buttoned everything up and now the signals and hazards don't work anymore!? I replaced the flasher on the fuse panel to no effect. Then I noticed that some of the wires were loose in the harness connectors, so I wiggle and force them in as well as I can. After plugging and unplugging the connectors multiple times I manage to break ALL of the tabs off...

So I ordered new connectors (figuring this has to be the problem). Today I rewired with all new multifunction switch connectors and put it back together. STILL no blinkers or hazard lights, and the high beam doesn't seem to be functioning anymore. Everything else seemed to work fine. By now I figure she can drive it to Tennessee using arm signals. So I button it all back together. Now turning the ignition does NOTHING. And the horn doesn't work (I had the steering wheel off during all of this, it has a broken tilt mechanism, was trying to get it to lock in a single position too).

So now I'm not getting power of any kind, and I wish (of course) that I'd never bothered with any of this.

I pulled and inspected all of the fuses under the dash one at a time and none look blown. I did a search of the forums here first, and I'm thinking I probably need to examine my battery terminals and verify that I have a good ground.

Any other suggestions?

I'm going to be looking for a replacement steering column this weekend to just swap out the broken one with a fixed column. Maybe I'll pick up a junkyard fuse panel and/or complete wiring harness as well?

Thanks in advance!

Ragehammer