When you have a good charge on the battery, and the fuse is good...... does the engine crank right over, and fire right up? Or does the starter struggle to turn the motor?

 

I believe it cranks right up, with a good charge and a fresh fuse that is. Id be set if it was a circuit breaker instead of a blasted fuse.

 

Which 40 amp fuse is blowing?

 

It is a 40A green PAL cartridge fuse in the second slot down from the left in the PDC.

It is the second one down from the left, it is the green one that isnt fully inserted in the socket (I just had it like that because I didnt want to burn out a fuse or have to pull out a fuse) According to the cover for the PDC it fuses the Ignition circuit.

In fact, in that wiring diagram it is FUSE 2 in the PDC.

 

And I have seen it referred to as fuse 4 in other places.....

Ok, that fuse supplies power to a host of places via the ignition switch. Need to find out exactly WHEN it actually blows.... according to theory, the truck should quit when it does..... Something on the pink/black circuit would be my guess, given that is the wire that is burnt. Which goes to the starter relay.......

Might be an interesting idea to have a look at the back side of the PDC, and see if you don't have a short in there somewhere.

 

Interesting thought occurred to me. There is a splice of the BK/OR wire where it goes through a relay via port 86 and on the other side of the relay, on pin 85, is a ******* ******* ground wire! Actually it was just a wire that was connected to a junction of wires and it did have a connector on it that made it certainly LOOK like it was supposed to be grounded. I cannot recall for the life of me if it was connected to anything in the original dashboard before I removed the wiring harness but I was going through and connecting all of the wires when I was installing the old harness on the new dash and I found this black wire with a connector on the end that made it look like it was supposed to be grounded so I put it on the screw on the bottom right of the frame of the dash just to the left of where the kick panel goes in. In doing so, I inadvertently appear to short the circuit that would otherwise start the truck. I am going to do some checking but I feel fairly confident about this. This probably also means I will be removing that relay in the picture below.

Let us see how this works out.

 

Short to ground would certainly do it....

 

While I did believe that was the problem, it was apparently not. It is still exhibiting the same behavior as before I removed that relay. I did pick up a couple more fuses and manage to get the thing running though. It needed a jump start and I let it run to charge the battery back for a little while then I went and ran some errands, all the while not turning it off. When I got done and back home it had been running for about 2 hours, at least. Maybe 3. I got home and before I turned it off, I checked the ignition fuse. It was burned, which was obvious since the ABS and AIRBAG lights were on, so I popped in a new fuse to see when the problem occurs. It did not pop when I put it in so I assume the problem in not in the portion of the circuit that gets power when the Ignition Switch is in the RUN position. I then turned the truck off and tried to start it back up. The fuse blew immediately, not even letting the truck start this time. At this point it is obvious to me where the problem might be. Tomorrow I shall check the entire length of wire that connects the second fuse to the starter relay, there I will find the problem, be it a nick in the wire or a cross in a wire. If I dont find the problem tomorrow, it is getting sent off to the mechanic. I am just about through with this thing.

Additionally, I found something weird. According to the wiring diagram, if FUSE 2 in the PDC is missing or otherwise non-functional, several things should happen.
1. truck shouldnt start
2. windows shouldnt work
3. blower motor shouldnt work
4. ABS shouldnt work
5. airbags shouldnt work

Now, all of that is well and good, but when I remove FUSE 2 in the PDC altogether, regardless of its intact-ness, all of those should happen, right? WRONG. 1, 4 and 5 are all well and good but I pulled that fuse out altogether and the bloody windows and blower motor still work just fine. Like. I cannot even describe how annoying this has become. This means that either Dodge made some MAJOR changes in the wiring between 1994 and 1995 or that last guy who had this truck did some serious rewiring. Likely the latter. I am just sitting there pondering "WTF" because the fuse is not intact so the windows shouldnt work, but they do.

I need to lay down. Maybe I will take a vacation or something.


Would anyone happen to have a manual for the 94/95 Dodge Ram that has page 8W-11-7 in it? The one I found on this site doesnt appear to have that page and it is a page with wiring diagrams for the starter relay which would be quite useful right now. Or if someone happens to have a paper manual of some sort, a picture of the wiring diagrams for the starter motor relays would be most appreciated right now.

Besides that, After looking at the diagrams and considering the observations I have made thus far, I can somewhat safely presume the issue in the wiring is somewhere between the PDC, specifically Fuse 2, the ignition switch and the starter relay, pin 30. This includes S146. Again, it was probably some silly error of my own that arose from the removal or reinstallation of the dashboard.

 

So did the fuse blow when you turned the ignition on again? Or when you tried to start?

 

The fuse blew when it was trying to start. It seems to be a gamble on whether it will actually start before the fuse will blow. That is, the fuse blew when the ignition was in the START position.