OK. Installed and wired up the OHC. Worked great. Then night came. Turned on the headlights...truck died out. Lights permanantly stayed on, even with the switch off. Tried to restart the truck twice, barely turned over. After a 65 dollar tow home, and investigating behind the dash, the BLUE/RED wire I hooked up to (for the OHC) from the radio wiring is completely BARBEQUED and mostly bare wire is exposed. Traced it back, and it is fried at the headlight switch as well. Traced both wires back and they magically disappear into large bundle of wires that I assume go to the firewall and plug into a large connector that eventually leads to the power distribution box (I think).

So...question...

What to do next? Buy and replace that large bundle of wires (meaning I have to find all the connections and disconnect them and remember where they go). Is this even possible? Just replace that one single wire, but then where to connect? I'm thinking I'm gonna have to rip out the entire front dash (which I'm gonna need help with, maybe a link to a how-to, etc). Any help would be extremely appreciated. Thanks.

 

if it fryed it melted into the other wires and multiple wires are now touching....i ran my OHC off the accesory wire...i wasnt taping in to anything but that....

 

This is what I think as well (melted onto other wires in the bundle)......so, what next?

By the way, where is the acessory wire (what color, location, etc.)?

 

looks like u will be buying new wiring....sucks.....good luck with it though.......i dont understand how the wire could have melted like that unless u wired the wrong thing.....

 

well i have a aftermarket radio and therefore i have an aftermarkey wiring harness behind radio and its solid red....

 

followed that website with the wiring instructions to a tee. Not sure how it happened either. I've wired things up before without problems, so not a newbie to wiring. I'm still scratching my head about it.

 

your connections properly taped?? butt connecter or whatever?

 

Get some pictures of it, if its that bad i would just get a whole new harness

Rocky

 

absolutely! Checked them three times before I screwed everything back in.

 

couldnt tell you man...unless u hooked up something to a wrong wire....ive had mine for about a year and followed griggs how-to and mine still perfect...

 

u might want to find out what it was or u might be having a electrical fire onboard......i had a major rewiring project a month or so ago....

 

So this is possible, getting a whole new wire harness. Anyone know how much, anyone ever done this before? After I rip the dash out to get to the firewall inside, will the harness lead into a giant plug? Anyone with this experience?

 

depends on where it is fryed.......but u can goto any local junkyard and get you one.....
1st u need to find out what is burnt
2 pull out what is burnt and see if u can recover it
3 call local junkyards for the harness or harnesses that arent salvageable......u can possible recover the harness if itsnt burnt to hell u can pull the burned up wire out of the others and electrical tape and rerun the wire that started it all...get some pics up and do some taking apart and find out the situation...

 

That would be an all day project at a junk yard, but if you need it, you need it..... If its only acouple wires, i would just replace them ......but if it goes back into the plug then it needs replaced

Rocky

 

good point forgot to mention the plug thing....u WILL have to buy a new harness if its burnt to the plugs.....this can be very costly if its that........sounds like u are going to need a headlight switch also...u said it was burnt to that ...

 

Yeah, the wire is melted all the way up to the plugs, but where it enters the plug, it's pretty clean. I guess my big question is does this entire wire harness (which goes to the firewall), feed into a large plug? Second big question, has anyone pulled off the entire front dash, and if so, can you give me some tips, pitfalls I may run into, or a link to a how-to?

 

The light blue with red stripe at the console just tells it when the headlights/parking lights are on. The source is the LB/RD from the dash illumination. This is the same on Rangers and most Explorers.

The LB/RD comes from the dash dimming module which is fed from the parking light circuit which is protected by a 15A fuse (#11 in the underhood box on a 98 Ranger). Even if the LB/RD was shorted to ground somewhere near the console, that fuse should have melted long before the wire did.

 

listen to bob hes badass!!! has helped me time and time again!

 

First of all, I'm glad you responded, was waiting for you to log on.
Second, the #11 was burnt out, but not melted.
So, any suggestions?

 

oh, in the underhood box.. Didn't check that. DO you mean the power distribution box?

 

I checked the #11 at the power distribution box under the hood, it was fine, intact, not melted.

 

So, apparently, the high current that melted your LB/RD wire didn't come through the intended path (15A fuse 11). And it looks like maybe it backfed into the parking light circuit. We need to figure out what was connected to the LB/RD.

 

The only thing I connected to the LB/RD wire was the console display dimmer input from the OHC.

 

I could definitely use the help. I'm on the northeast side, right behind Robert E. Lee High school (Jackson-Keller and 410 area). Any help would be appreciated. Maybe on a Sunday or something.