There is a heavy gage black cable from the positive side of the battery with 5 fusible links - located near the left shock tower. (A1 positive battery circuit) (8W-33)

An orange 20 gage fusible link to the red wire is burned. There is a second fusible link attached to the same red wire. It is white, 22 gage and is also connected to 2 red wires on the other end. One has a white tracer.

Before the orange 20 gage fusible burned:
Something was draining the battery
The truck had an occasional ‘miss’ that I believe was ignition related

For testing purposes I have:
1. Replaced the orange 20 gage fusible link with and inline fuse.
2. Run a temporary line from the inline fuse to the positive side of the battery.
3. Removed fuses 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, & 13 to help isolate the problem.

The ignition has 2 forward positions and then all the way to start.

My test fuse blows on the second forward position (Run).

If the ignition is turned backward one position past key removal, (Accessory) the fuse does not blow.

Can someone suggest what I should try next? I think I am looking for a short. Should I be looking inside the cab our under the hood? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Sounds like you did have a short. Usually a big short like that would be wires rubbing somewhere on the engine or frame where it is shorting out. I would suggest to remove all the wiring start with the under the hood and under the cab set. Tare it all apart and repair any broken pieces.

 

Crazy4x4RT,
Thanks for the reply. I think you are correct about the short. It appears to be somewhere in the ignition, and inside the cab. Still trying to figure it all out.

 

You sure did your homework . . . hope you find the problem.

 

i did that one night at the gas station i have an 89 Dakota the stereo had been removed and the positive wire managed to touch a ground the truck just stopped dead took about 5 min to figure out what wire and to cut and put in a temp till i got home fuse i would check any positive wires in the dash lol starting with that darn radio..... also i do believe it is on the same circuit as the fuel pump and the power to the injectors grrr..... hope that helps

 

imerlinxi,
Thanks for the ideas. I'm still looking for the short, and any advice is appreciated.

 

I replaced the ignition and the problem remains. If I have done my troubleshooting correctly, I have narrowed it down to either the dark blue or the black wire off of the ignition. At this point, any help is greatly appreciated.

 

well in 99.9% of the wiring black is a ground wire, and the blue i do believe is the power to the fuel pump mine is dark blue with a red stripe i will check the wiring diagrams in the repair manual this afternoon and let you know what i find

 

ok so i found the repair manual dark blue ant the fuel pump sorry for that one but it is a whole list of goodies i made some pics of the part that is in question and have attached 2 pics for you

 

ixmerlinxi,
I found it! The short was on the blue wire. It was caused by a faulty starter kill relay for the alarm system. Thanks for your help!