Ok, so ever since I got my truck back from it's near fatal accident (...pause...genuflect...) I've been having a weird issue. Fuse #43 (LT PARK LAMPS) keeps blowing and both my left side tail light and front amber light don't work when I turn on my lights.......but they still work as a turn signal?

A couple weeks ago my lil yellow dash light bulb symbol illuminated and when I would put on my left sig it would flash twice as fast...upon inspection I found my left plate light bulb was out...ok simple fix, but noooooo. Something is shorting and keeps blowing fuses.

I can assume that the turn signal and park lamps are on a separate fuse, so if that is the case and just the one keeps blowing, does that kind of narrow down where the problem might be?

 

Good chance the harness got damaged. Either during you incident or during the repair.
Does the fuse blow as soon as you turn on the lights?
If yes, I would suspect one of the wires got caught under a bolt (Or body panel) when things were being reassembled and is shorting. Shouldn't be too hard to spot if that's the case. I take it the damage was on the left side? Anyway, start at the light and follow the harness till you find the problem. Look for the obvious. Wire caught in between two parts (Or under a bolt head), damaged insulation.

 

Yeah, they do go right away. At first I thought water may have gotten in something, cuz when I pulled the harnesses, I saw aqua colored corrosion on some of the terminals, plus the last set of LED taillights I got had some condensation inside them. So, first I cleaned all the terminals and applied dielectric grease and sealed everything with rtv seal. But still same result.

I didn't notice any damage to the wire harnesses themselves, but I will do like you said and follow the wiring from the harness as far up as I can and see if I find anything.

 

I agree with LoCactus' assessment. The harness going from the cab to the rear should be just 1 lump of cables and shouldn't be too hard to find and check for physical damage. If you don't see any problems with the cable, I would take off the rear light assemblies to see if the "tail light" circuit is visibly shorted (the turn signal is on a separate circuit which is why it still works). If you can't see any place where a wire might be shorted to ground, you'll need a multimeter to help find the problem.

If you had the truck repaired at a body shop, they normally give a warranty with their work. This warranty applies to everything they touch, and if it's still in effect, I'd take it back & have them find & repair the short.

 

Start with the simple stuff and change the bulbs. I've seen bulbs that were shorted internally. It may not help, but it takes only a few minutes and only costs a couple of bucks.

 

Realizing that When my truck was in the shop they had to remove the bumper so they could painted and then reinstall it. That being the case there's a possibility that they might have messed up the wiring harness for the trailer hitch. If that does not seem to help, and I'm just going to go ahead and take it back up to the place that did the work. So far they have been really helpful so I do not see why they would not be helpful with this as well.

 

I need a wiring diagram to find the ground for the left parking lights

 

A Haynes manual (Dakota & Durango are in the same manual) can give you a schematic to work from. These are generally simplified and not always correct, or you can download the service manual located on this forum. If you download this manual (it's really comprehensive), the majority of the electrical stuff is located in section 8 (in the first volume), and the index is located in volume 2.

You can also run a new line from one of the ground wires in the tail light assembly to some point on the chassis as a test. If it works, you can leave the new line (just clean up the installation so that it will work as a permanent connection), or you can search for the bad connection and repair that.

 

Maybe this will help.

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Thanks man, been looking at a few diagrams and recently downloaded the one off the forum. At first it was like trying to read Russian, but it's starting to make more sense now...still looking at like a map....and knowing that the brake and turn signals at least work in both the front and back, that has to tell me something as far as narrowing down where the problem lies. I'm pretty sure from the diagrams the positive for the front and rear park lamps is the pink/red wire. Going with many have suggested, that it is most likely a ground wire issue, what doesnt make sense to me, is that from the diagram, it looks like the same ground is used for both the park and turn/stop wires, and if that is the case, if it was a ground issue...wouldn't it have blown for both of them? I really don't know much when it comes to electrical work, but I'm learning. Learned enough from youtube to install my stereo without blowing anything up, so I must not be that much of an idiot, but who am I to judge lol.

Thanks again for all the advice that has been coming in, but if I can't figure this thing out by the weekend, I think I'm just gonna take it to the shop that worked on it before, even though is a small chance that they might be able to connect the issue to my original accident and have insurance cover it, I just got my tax return if I do have to pay anything out of pocket. Plus, I've been having power steering issues and gonna play it a little dumb and and ask if there is anyway it could be linked to the accident, just because they replaced pretty much the entire front end suspension and steering rack...and maybe they might have overlooked an issue with the steering column, links and or pump...but same deal if I gotta pay for it I got the scratch on hand.