Wiring nightmare!!!

[ffmcoop950]

Alright yall gotta help. I have an 88' k5 which started blowing fuses, mostly brake light and tail light/ courtesy. I had the wiring harness replaced by this guy who I guess didn't do it right cause its doing it again. I don't have the money to pay a "professional" to do it, so I'm looking for any ideas of why this is happening again. I've recently bought a parts truck with the same wiring harness that I'll try to swap myself but don't want to do that if its something simple. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Mike

 

[HarryH3]

Check for loose wiring back near the rear bumper. My '91 S-Jimmy had a factory trailer package that included unterminated trailer wiring. The factory just folded over the wires and wrapped them in electrical tape. The bare ends would touch the frame or bumper every now and then and pop a fuse. Once I wired in a trailer plug all was fine.

I've also seen some pretty ugly home made trailer wiring jobs cause shorts back at the same area. Look for the flat 4-wire cable that comes down the drivers side frame rail. That's the factory wiring for the rear lights. Trace it to each tail light for any frayed insulation, old bits of "extra" wire from botched trailer wiring, etc.

 

[Mr.Jimmy]

harry h3's on the right page. sounds like a pinched wire or even some homejob patch work may be involved. a voltage meter comes in handy.

 

[ffmcoop950]

thanks

thanks a bunch guys. I'll give it a shot. It does have a plug in for trailer lights that I bent up a while back. It just started acting up yesterday though, but whole knows, its worth a shot. If I can ever get this thing to stop with this nickle and dime stuff, I plan on lifting and fixin' er up! Keep your fingers crossed and thanks again.
-Mike

 

[dhcomp]

We Had tons of problems on our burb, tail lights, head lights, turnsignals, and it was water in the trailer harness. If its a plug in T connecter, remove it, clean contacts, grease with dielectric grease, plug harness back together. If it solves the problem, go to U haul and get a new harness for $16. Even has diagnostic LED's

 

[Mr.Jimmy]

good luk mike, keep us posted.

 

[ffmcoop950]

ah ha!

I got to looking at all the wires in my truck and found where the guy that had "fixed" my truck had spliced a wire into my tail lights and literally wrapped it around my frame rail all the way to the fire wall and just stuck it into the fuse box! Great craftmanship huh? Anyway I'm gonna be spending my whole weekend swapping wiring harnesses. Thanks for all the responses though. I have just recently joined the site and love it already. Thanks a bunch.

-Mike
Wilmington, NC