Pre 84 Trucks 1st gen pickups

1983 pickup wiring gremlins

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Old 12-17-2016, 12:52 PM
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1983 pickup wiring gremlins

so recently i have been having some wiring issues.
started one night after i was buttoning up a few things...
noticed no dash lights and no running lights, checked "tail" fuse and its blown, put a new fuse in and it blows instantly. unplugged rear part of harness and it blows, disconnected front running lights still blows, radio unplugged still blows. im lost here
and to top things off as i couldnt figure it out i let the truck sit till i could get help, went out to mess with more things and it worked fine until last night(2 days later). fuse pops whenever a new one is put in
Old 12-17-2016, 02:04 PM
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anyone have any ideas?
Old 12-17-2016, 03:05 PM
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Manual transmission? Could be the rheostat shorted to ground. Later model automatic don't fail like this, but the MT version has an extra lead directly from the fuse this can short to ground and blow the fuse then magicly fix it's self because it got bumped.
Old 12-17-2016, 03:06 PM
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yeah manual. and where is this rheostat located and will unplugging it if possible reveal anything new
Old 12-17-2016, 04:40 PM
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the rheostat is just the dimmer switch on the left side of the dash correct? should i try unplugging it or removing it from the dash?
Old 12-19-2016, 08:09 AM
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Yeah sorry, rheostat is the dimmer. Disconnecting it should eliminate it as a possible problem. Make sure the loose wires aren't going to touch anything.

It's three wires, one to ground, one from the lights it controls, and one direct from the fuse. It might only be two wires and grounds at the case, I don't the recall.

The 88 FSM is a poor excuse for the right EWD. Looks like a four place plug maybe, pin 4 would be ground pin 3 is directly from the fuse. The book doesn't list this resistance but it should be relatively high compared to pin 2 to 4
Old 12-19-2016, 08:12 AM
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fixed the wiring issue. there was a short in the harness running up to the front running lights



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