Pickup Wiring.You Have To Be Kidding

[big rockpile]

Ok light came on my 90 Dodge.Maintenance Required.Take it to one shop.They say there is a problem with Over Drive.Won't hurt to drive it until I can get to a Trainsmission Shop.

So I drive it 50 miles to Trainsmission Shop.They say a Penny got in my Cigarette Lighter,blowed a Fuse.they replaced the Fuse I have Over Drive now.

But there is a short and I will have to have the whole Wiring Harness replaced,which they don't do.And could cost more than the Pickup is worth.

Ok why in the heck would they have to replace the whole Harness?

big rockpile

[Yeti]

who knows. lots of times shops will give some absured estimate so you will leave and take your junk with you. if its over 10 years old most places hate to work on stuff if they think they will loose money chasing shorts. your best bet if check it out your self. if you follow the harness down from the firewall you can ussally find the cause. it could be as easy a bad ground on the end of a wire.

[big rockpile]

Originally Posted by Yeti

who knows. lots of times shops will give some absured estimate so you will leave and take your junk with you. if its over 10 years old most places hate to work on stuff if they think they will loose money chasing shorts. your best bet if check it out your self. if you follow the harness down from the firewall you can ussally find the cause. it could be as easy a bad ground on the end of a wire.

It would seem to me.Go from what isn't working and follow it one way or the other

I know what you mean on something being over 10 years old.I just got my Boat out of the Shop,they couldn't see wasting time on a Boat Motor that was 30 years old.Had a cracked Flywheel they didn't want to look for one.

I was talking with my wife on getting an older Pickup that we could work on.But we probably be working on it all the time and I need something dependable.

big rockpile

[wilderness1989]

If you aren't having to replace fuses now and it's running OK I'd just go ahead and drive it. Raised my kids working as a mechanic in GM dealers. My 2¢.

[Jethro]

There is a device sold in Harbor Freight that will trace shorts in wire harnesses. I beleive these things work pretty well.

[Ed Norman]

Lucky the penny didn't get in the defrost fan. You might have lost reverse. <G>

[agmantoo]

An observation that I have noticed is that at salvage car sales very few people will bid on a vehicle with electrical problems. Those that do buy them intend to scrap the vehicle. Most mechanics and body shop employees do not like to work on electrical problems. IMO, this is the reason you got the response you received. On the other hand, changing the wiring harness itself is not that difficult. Any person that is able to crawl under the dash area and that can keep a few notes and is not color blind can change the entire harnesses one at a time. A technician can open the harness and find the problem areas and splice a fully functional section into the damaged harness. It is just a matter of where you are comfortable and the amount of perserverence one possesses. Just an aside comment.....I have a friend that is in the earth moving business. He bought a huge offroad dump type truck from a Cat dealer that refused to repair the electric controlled transmission on this very expensive truck. The Cat dealer sold the vehicle cheap as is at a significant discount to market value. Volvo wanted $8000 to work on the transmission. It took me 3 days part time to trouble shoot the problem due to the complexity, lack of familiarity, and size plus inadequate test equipment. The machine is now on the job and the total repairs for purchased parts was 0. A throttle position sensor was not able to send an acceptable signal to the computer. The computer determined the machine should not change gears as the engine was not running at the speed required.

[uncle Will in In.]

If everything works, and the battery stays up, I'd drive the booger till I smelled smoke. Fuses are there to cover shorts.

[Oldguy]

Originally Posted by big rockpile

I know what you mean on something being over 10 years old.I just got my Boat out of the Shop,they couldn't see wasting time on a Boat Motor that was 30 years old.Had a cracked Flywheel they didn't want to look for one.


big rockpile

I have a 35 hp johnson javelin motor, built in 1957, runs fine as frogs hair. Had to hunt down some coils for it a while back and you would have thought i told a joke when i went to the marine shop to find it.
They said why bother with such a old motor. I told them basically its paid for, its got more horsepower than todays 70 hp motors, and i didn't have 2000 dollars for a stinking motor.

[Old Vet]

Why would you replace a wiring harness anyway? The wireing harness is made up of severial wires that are in a harness. Why not just replaced the ones that are shourted? It only takes a little while to find the ones that are shourted and replace them. All it takes is time to check the ones that are most likely to chourt out. You know whith ones that are shourted out(the ones that go to the overdrive. so just replace them.

[ace admirer]

hmmm, well i purchased a ford pickup once that had one wire burned from one end to the the oversized fuse in the fusebox.....since it was in a harness bundle, just about everyother wire in the harness had its insulation burned through or damaged....thus it needed a new harness.....all from one over amped wire.

[Oldguy]

Originally Posted by Old Vet

Why would you replace a wiring harness anyway? The wireing harness is made up of severial wires that are in a harness. Why not just replaced the ones that are shourted? It only takes a little while to find the ones that are shourted and replace them. All it takes is time to check the ones that are most likely to chourt out. You know whith ones that are shourted out(the ones that go to the overdrive. so just replace them.

LOL that is until it gets into the main trunk that pops up under the fuse box under the hood. That sucker is around 2" thick, probably has over 1000 wires in it.