since its my girls truck and she will never tow anything could I just clip the harness and tape it? and like i said hate electrical ... wheres the rear harness and whats it look like? ...do I just follow the wires from the trailer harness to find the rear harness.

 

Depending on what it looks like where it hits the rear harness.... (yeah, you can just follow the trailer harness to the rear harness) you might be able to just unplug it. Have a look at how it is connected, and take it from there.

Yep, if she never plans on using it, just completely disconnect it. See if that doesn't solve the problem.

 

ok shes at work will try that as soon as she gets home and it stops raining ... if thats not the problem whats the next step. and just for a lil humor i cant tell you how excited i was when I took it for a test drive after my attempt to jump the wire and the cluster lights stayed on and no fuse blew until i went to park it and saw the rear lights in the rear view and realized It didnt fix the problem but caused more lol also just curious behind the drivers side tail light cover there is a lil box with a red wire and a black wire connected to it and a 5 amp fuse in it the black wire is disconnected the red one seems to be connected to the white with red stripe wire coming out of the wiring harness and didnt know what that was seems aftermarket to me but its also not connected to anything which makes me wonder if thats a problem or if its just leftover junk that was left in there

 

ok so I found the short. It was one of the connections on the joint connection box that was corroded to hell cause the previous owner just twisted the connections together and barely covered them with electrical tape. So hear is my next question can I bypass the box by just taking the wires that are on the left side of the box match them up with the same color wires on the right side of the box and patch it? Cause i can make that work if it wont mess anything up... cause it looks like all it does is patch in the trailer hitch wires which I've already cut off anyways lol lemme know what you think ... thanks in advance

 

ok so I bypassed the junction box by running new wire and taking the box out and everything worked out fine thanks for trying

 

I have a 1998 dodge dakota having some of the same problems. No tail lights and no gage cluster ligh , turn signals and brake lights work, head lights and front running lights work. I have been to 3 machanics and no one will look at it. i have read several others post and followed their direction with no luck. i have changed every fuse in the cabin fuse panel and checked the fuses under the hood . i have also replaced all the light bulbs front and back . any suggestions would be very helpful

 

replacing fuses and bulbs isn't going to do it. you need to trace the wires. a place to start, would be to remove the headlight switch and see if the plug on the back of it is melted.

 

97 Caravan - I'm still looking for a solution for my missing left rear tail light and license tag light. I have been hauling a small trailer and there was a left tail light torn off. I think anyone adding a trailer light connector should add 10 Amp fused leads in series with all 12v feeds. That way a short should blow that fuse before the van's 20A supply fuse or wiring.

 

This is more than "a lot of times."

Regulatory requirements mandate that brake lights be on separate circuit than tail lights and that the instrument lighting be on the tail light circuit as a methos to notify driver that tail lights are out.

Foreign cars are also required to meet same standard, much as seat belt requirements.


there is a wiring diagram in the factory service manual. Link in the DIY section. That should help.

 

1994 dodge dakota
A few of you are having the same issue I am. Brake lights work, turn signals, hazards. They all work, but the running lights and the dash lights do not. All fuses checked are are working fine.
I think the previous owner used to pull a trailer and had it wired, if that means anything?
Any help is appreciated.