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'90 K5 - The Nevada Blazer [Post 1437: School me on alternators)

Well, I think that this wiring problem has me beat. I followed every wire I could think of yesterday for about 3 hours and couldn't find the short in the horn/dimmer fuse line. I pulled both door switches, the steering wheel to check the horn, pulled most all the connectors to the steering column, double checked my stereo wiring. I pulled the headlight switch wiring, traced and pulled the interior lighting and the in-the-hood horn wiring. :dunno: I ended up finding a keyed-accessory port on my fuse block to plug my CB into, so at least I ahve a working CB - but it's really irritating me to not have a horn or interior lights.

Oddly, the fuse for the courtesy lights is good, but they've never worked. I'm wondering about a relationship there, but I didn't see anything out of place or screwed up on that wiring either.

So, I think i'm going to take it to a shop and tell them to deal with it. :(
 
colbystephens said:
Well, I think that this wiring problem has me beat. I followed every wire I could think of yesterday for about 3 hours and couldn't find the short in the horn/dimmer fuse line. I pulled both door switches, the steering wheel to check the horn, pulled most all the connectors to the steering column, double checked my stereo wiring. I pulled the headlight switch wiring, traced and pulled the interior lighting and the in-the-hood horn wiring. :dunno: I ended up finding a keyed-accessory port on my fuse block to plug my CB into, so at least I ahve a working CB - but it's really irritating me to not have a horn or interior lights.

Oddly, the fuse for the courtesy lights is good, but they've never worked. I'm wondering about a relationship there, but I didn't see anything out of place or screwed up on that wiring either.

So, I think i'm going to take it to a shop and tell them to deal with it. :(
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Did you try swapping out the headlight switch? They do all sorts of funky stuff when they die, and turning the dimmer all the way up turns on teh int lights, so they ARE connected.....
 
I didn't swap the switch, but I unplugged the harness from the switch and that fuse still blew.

When you turn the interior lights on with the headlight switch, is it supposed to turn on the courtesy lights under the dash too?
 
colbystephens said:
I didn't swap the switch, but I unplugged the harness from the switch and that fuse still blew.

When you turn the interior lights on with the headlight switch, is it supposed to turn on the courtesy lights under the dash too?
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I believe that is correct.
 
Colby on my 89 the problem with interior lights was the door jamb switch. It looked fine but when I replaced it with another I had they started working.

Just one more thing to mess with if you haven't already
 
Before you take it to a shop, bring it by my place and we'll go after it with a multimeter. I just had the whole harness out of my truck over the weekend too, so it's pretty fresh in my memory. I think the interior lighting and accessories are relatively similar between the trucks.
 
blazinzuk said:
Colby on my 89 the problem with interior lights was the door jamb switch. It looked fine but when I replaced it with another I had they started working.

Just one more thing to mess with if you haven't already
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As to the switch, I removed them each from the circuit and put in a fuse, which popped. So they're not the short anyway. Doesn't mean they're good, but they're not the short in the circuit.

owenst7 said:
Before you take it to a shop, bring it by my place and we'll go after it with a multimeter. I just had the whole harness out of my truck over the weekend too, so it's pretty fresh in my memory. I think the interior lighting and accessories are relatively similar between the trucks.
Click to expand...

OK. I'll do that. :D

dhcomp said:
Yes Sir. All on the same circuit.
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One thing that confuses me is that the fuse for them is still good, but the fuse for the other is shot, so I assumed that it was the other wiring. However, it now occurs to me that they didn't have a fuse in the block prior to my having this problem. Maybe the power draws through the horn/dimmer fuse first, and so it's the first circuit to blow. I should try removing the fuse for them and see if I can get a fuse to stay in the horn/dimmer. That would also isolate my problem... :thinking:
 
I dont know if these will help you but heres a couple wiring diagrams i dug up for the circuit you were talking about. Looks like power mirrors, vanity mirrors and cig lighter also tie into those fuses. What fuse blows? I looked to see if you said but not very hard.

Lol cant really see them on here i can email them if you like

Graphic 2.jpg

Graphic.jpg
 
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Thanks so much! :bow: I think I might need the email, because I can't really read that either. I'll shoot you a pm w/ my address.

The fuse that blows is the Horn/Dimmer. I tried removing the fuse for the courtesy lights, and the fuse still blew. So, I know the short isn't in that circuit. I'm still suspecting it could be the interior light wiring.

I'm going to trace it up into the roof perhaps this weekend and see. The plastic up near the dome light is cracked around the screws, which implies that the previous owner removed that plastic at some point and retightened those screws too tight... which indicates that he screwed with something. Hopefully that will be where it's at, because I sure can't see anything wrong with what's under the hood or the dash.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I found one for $60 a couple weeks back, and swapped in a new slider window. :wink1: So, I now have (had) 4 slider windows and am only into it for $60. :D I still need to get rid of the shells though. I have so little time to do anything... But, semester is over, and I should have slightly more time now.
 
So here's the wiring diagram that I think will be most helpful. Thanks, Kauzenkaos.
Sorry, I know it's enormous, but I figured people might want to be able to read it.
The part we're looking at is in the upper left quadrant of the page.

Couple questions: What is the "H2" coming off of the ECM fuse?
Also, where the T/L CTSY fuse goes up to the Alternator, what's the deal with the little circles indicating Gas and Diesel?
Does that mean that on a gas truck the red wire goes straight to the alternator,
and on a diesel truck it goes straight to the junction block?


Graphic 5 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr
 
Also, the upper left quadrant seems relevant here too.
Where exactly in the truck is the "convenience" center?
DIR/HAZ Switch: I can't think of what DIR stands for. Ideas?


Graphic 6 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr
 
The red wire from the alternator is the power feed to those 3 fuses in the fusebox. The circles mean if you have a gas engine follow that wire. If I remember correctly I found my glovebox bulb melted the connector and was blowing the fuse on mine when I bought it. I think the letter/number with the square is a connector and pin number but I'm not sure.
 
Just to add on Page six I thought I saw that the cig lighter was tied into the power feed at the horn relay
 
Missed part of your last post dir stands for turn signal or directional signal. The convince center is under the dash it has the horn relay hazard flasher and buzzer that goes off when you head lights are on with no key in the igntion
 
Had a real nice day wheelin today. It's a trail not far from my place, and had some real nice views and some fun rocks. Was a pretty easy trail, but great fun for all of us today.

Here's "alexsdad" entering the canyon.


SS Wheelin-1 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


SS Wheelin-2 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


SS Wheelin-3 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr
A new friend's 3/4 ton, 85 pick up.


SS Wheelin-4 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


SS Wheelin-5 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


SS Wheelin-6 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


SS Wheelin-10 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


SS Wheelin-11 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr


SS Wheelin-12 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

There was a very beautiful view. Unfortunately, the quality of light is so bright that you can't really see the colors of the desert in this pic, but the view was still pretty great.


SS Wheelin-13 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Here's where things ended up getting more interesting (than I'd expected). This was an extremely steep and long hill, and the surface of the ground was terribly loose.


SS Wheelin-14 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

My friend's silver pick up had a pretty tough time with the hill. He's open in both axles.


SS Wheelin-15 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

He backed down, and I went up to the top and we waited for him as he gave it a real good attempt to get up the hill. He was powering up, but he said his transmission popped out of gear (465), and when he hit his brakes he slid down the hill probably about 40 feet or so, and off the side of the trail. While trying to get back on the trail he blew out his driver's side from axle shaft u-joint, and the ears on his axle shafts. So, I backed down the hill and we spent a bit of time getting him pulled back onto the trail. We backed down the hill, still attached, so as to help him not slide off the trail again. That was an uncomfortable experience, getting pulled down backwards w/ my wheels locked up! :yikes:

So, we ended up having to go out the way we came in, which only allowed for one struck situation for my friend with the broken front end... fortunately, it was downhill.


SS Wheelin-16 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Here, he was stuck, and it took quite a while of creative hi-lift use and my truck pulling him backwards to get him going again. However, it made for a good photo op! :)

Then I made my big mistake of the day: I got out to take this dorky poser shot.


SS Wheelin-17 by colbyjstephens, on Flickr

Getting back in, I was jumping into my truck from a loose boulder and nailed my shin against my rocker panel. It cut me down to the bone and soaked my sock and boot with blood. Took quite a bit to stop the gushing bleed, but we got it stopped. I'm pretty sore now, but good to go.

Anyway, damn nice day, and some fun wheelin! :D
 
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