badmrb

My 93 died tonight. I was ready to go to the lake. Had the boat hooked up. Had the family getting in. I started the truck to start cooling it down and WAM! died, ran for about 5 seconds and quite. No anything. I've got nothing at the dash, no gauges, no indicator lights, no radio. The dome light comes on and the windows went up. Key does nothing. I checked fuses, nothing burnt. Popped hood and could smell burnt wiring. Maybe fuseable link?

Anyone have something similar happen? I didn't have time to sort it out tonight. Called friends who we were meeting and had them bring their truck for the boat.

I'll tear into it tomorrow, was just wondering if anyone has had this happen? If there is a particular weak link in the ignition wiring?


P.S. Problem wasn't from the boat. Still had lights and boat has no electrical brakes.

Begle1

Sorry, but I have pretty limited experience here...

So it won't crank over? You can try to hotwire the starter, but I don't think that would be your problem... You have no electricity at all, which is very odd... You should have enough for your dash lights unless your battery was either totally dead or disconnected... But your windows worked, so you know you got some juice...

Fuseable link sounds like a very good bet, especially if you smelled burnt wiring, but I don't see how that could have caused the engine or dash to die? Unless the fuseable link controls the fuel shut-off solenoid, which I don't see how it would... (I don't believe that the dash lamps don't go through the fuseable link either, so I don't know why they died...)

Or maybe it's a faulty neutral-park switch... Try jiggling the shift lever...

Hmm... What else could there be...

12valve@heart

There are several fusible links under the hood over the left front wheel well. I believe that one of them controls most of the power to the dash/ignition so it may be that one of them has blown. Not an uncommon problem.

I have had a similar problem with mine and it turned out to be toasted wiring at the ignition switch (key) on the steering column. On that one I discovered that several sections of my fuse block under the dash were totally dead and traced it back to the column.

I'd start with the fusible links and then check the fuse box next. Let us know what you find.

badmrb

Im going to start into it today. When your wires went to the column, did you figure out a cause for why they went PUFF?

Its probably the same thing "12valve@heart" had. I didnt have any fuses blown so it has to be before there in the wiring.

lovemysan

my ignition toasted on me and took some of the fusable links with it.

lovemysan

hey badmrb, where are you located? I live in on the MO side 87th and wornall.

12valve@heart

Poor/loose connection = High resistance = Toasty wiring

apwatson50

I had one of my fusible links burn out as I was leaving a parking lot. Couldn't figure it out for days. Under the drivers side hood hinge in the wiring harness there's about six or so fusible links and one of those or multiple ones burn't out on yours I'm sure. I took all mine out and replaced them with a fuse block or you could put inline fuses in place of them.

badmrb

No my problem wasnt a loose connection. Loose connection or no connection would just be an open circuit. Nothing happens. I had a dead short. Took out a fuseable link. Traced out all wiring on that circuit.

Here is what I found. On drivers side top of transmition just above rear of pan there is a two wire plug. One blue wire(12v) and an orange wire w/black stripe. If disconnected can hook up new fuse, start truck etc... haven't drove yet though. If I hook plug back up, takes out fuse.

Anyone have a schematic or diagram that shows what this plug does?

Two wire plug, BLUE wire and ORANGE w/BLACK STRIPE wire.

Thanks,

wannadiesel

That is your overdrive solenoid.

badmrb

Yep, got all back together with inline fuses, left plug off, and no overdrive.

So, sounds like the overdrive solenoid cooked/dead shorted. Any ideas on a fix? Can the OD solenoid be replaced by dropping the pan? and has anyone else done this or had this problem?

wannadiesel

Yeah, the solenoid is on the side of the valve body. You may find that the problem is in the wiring from the external plug to the solenoid, if Dodge doesn't want too much for the harness you might want to pick that up too. If the insulation chafed through there's plenty of metal in there for it to short on...

badmrb

I guess I'll be dropping the tranny pan and taking a look around. Does anyone have a picture of where/what the OD solenoid looks like?
Does the valve body or anything else need to come out first?

It might be a few days before I get the pan dropped and take a look around. Any pictures, figures, directions, would be great. I'll post what I find in the end.

apwatson50

your going to have to take the valve body out to get the solenoid out. Its not really that much more to get it out.

Sorry don't have any pics.

badmrb

Well, final update. Fixed today. Dropped pan and found wires rubbed through against housing under the filter. I did a fluid and filter change weeks ago and didn't get the wires out of the way enough. The red wire was just barely under the filter and had finally chafed through.

Im glad everything works again and it wasn't expensive. Just wish I'd quite making work for myself.