Hi everybody, I'm hoping someone can fill me in on some details regarding the wiring located on the drivers side inner fender between the fuse box and firewall. It looks like some mice picked this open area to nest and got bored. They chewed through a number of wires but luckily it looks to me like it was mainly grounding wires.

The nest was right here. You can see the bundle of ground wires they chewed through.
I can repair the severed and partly chewed wires easily enough but I have a couple of questions first:

1.) What was it that was mounted on the lower left of the pic that they chewed up? Not much left but a little plastic nub.

2.) Just above that nub you can see a connector that I believe was never used for anything as long as I've owned the vehicle, but I'm still curious as to what it was used for.

3.) Probably most important, what is that solid state looking device that is bolted to the fender wall? One of it's wires is also severed and I think it was part of that ground wire bundle but just not sure.

I'm an electronic tech and shouldn't have any problems repairing wiring as long as I know what it is. I have searched around quite a bit and can't find any pics or diagrams that would do me any good without my having to trace down all of these wires under the dash to find their destinations. No thanks.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

1996 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 5.9L engine

 

The service manual for your year truck is available via the link listed below and should show the wiring diagrams - https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...e-manuals.html

 

That little black box might just be one of Chrysler's infamous "joint connectors" that ties grounds together. Should be easy to confirm with an ohm meter.

 

Thanks. That makes sense. The truck is lifted and it's hard to get a good view while standing on the ground but I could see nothing but black wires running to it and from the view I got, they seem to bundle with the other ground wires. That has to be it. I'll ohm it out to be sure.

I do have the service manual and it has plenty of wiring diagrams for the various circuits routing through the PDC but I would have to trace each wire down to find it's destination. The electrical section of the service manual is heavy on diagrams (which is a good thing) but light on illustrations. I had to find them individually in each of their own sections of the manual. At this point I'm pretty confident everything the mice chewed through are all ground wires and that I can just patch them with wire, solder, and heat shrink tubing. The only thing that worries me now is what that black plastic nub used to be. Guess I'll just go for it and try to determine if everything still works.


Edit: I found an illustration in the Brakes section that shows that the chewed down nub used to belong to a vacuum switch which is used to monitor the vacuum pump and indicate a low output, but since this is only used in diesel models I don't believe it was ever connected. No big loss there. I believe I've also figured out what that spare connector was for. It looks to belong to the anti-lock braking system which has been completely removed (or never optioned?) on my truck. The relay and socket are not installed in the PDC and neither are the controller and hydraulic control unit on the firewall. Looks like I'm good to go. Patching the ground wires should be all that is needed.

Thanks for the help!

 

You probably just have rear wheel anti-lock brakes. 4 wheel was an option, and I think dodge used the same wire harness for every truck.... so, connectors with nothing to plug into was normal.