First time posting (hope I'm in the right place)>
An admitted lurker here for a while for various minor issues and questions....but this one (thanks to some third party help!) seems to be more than I can handle and feels like it may be a puzzler!


So here’s the story -----
Some jackasses, apparently watching an old 1980’s movie, decided they should try to hot wire my truck! It sits a lot and apparently was just begging some idiot to take it. They knew enough to hack through the correct part of the wiring harness just under the steering column…but seem to have gotten confused when they realized there are 22 wires there. Luckily they didn’t get as far as trying to break the column or jacking the actual cylinder up. Three screws and they could have just unplugged connectors and played with those…but nooooooo!!!! At this point I really wish they'd have accidentally set the air bag off!! (Okay, I’ll stop there before I get angry again….still…more?!)

I’m not even sure when it happened, it was sitting a few weeks and this was late August.
Fast forward --- I’m a fair shade tree mechanic, have learned to use google (and these forums!) pretty well, and have a basic grasp of auto electronics. I’ll reiterate the BASIC part! I cut back all the chewed parts of the wires and spliced on connectors (solid connections and shrink tube).
Now to the fun/interesting part… obviously the truck won’t start, but after I insert the key and try to crank it…then remove the key…the whole system stays on, just like the key is still in the ignition and “ON”. (I know!! Good one, right?!!!) I have to disconnect the batteries to shut it all down.

So just for clarity, here’s what happens:
- Key inserted and turned to “ON/RUN”
- All instrument lights come on, fuel pump kicks on, fuel heater, ….. (normal pre-start cycle)
- Turn the key to “START”, nothing happens. Instruments stay on. I do hear a small relay somewhere in the engine bay but no starter activity at all.
- Return key to “On/run”, all instruments remain on (as normal)
- Turn key to “OFF” and REMOVE from ignition: all instruments still on, fuel pump runs through cycle, nothing will turn off until I disconnect batteries.

So, and here’s where my basic abilities end, I can’t follow the sequence of events well enough to know what is and/or what’s not happening. Is it just one of the signal wires on the ignition? A problem in the cluster? Or the TIP? Just a relay sticking? I had really hoped I just had something hooked up wrong but now I’m sensing a bigger issue.
After having the initial discouraging results I checked all the wires. There are 3 sets of duplicate color wires (WT/OR, VT/OR, and VT/BR). Tracked down the Dodge wiring diagrams online and (eventually) figured out which ones went where. Yes I’m sure they’re correct, traced one from each set of duplicates back to C219, which resolved the other three.

Also, as I was doing this little test I just happened to try to start it again with some of those 6 wires unplugged…and the truck fired up…but then wouldn’t shut down! Disconnected the batteries and killed it. Hooked the batteries up and was getting weird things going on with the instruments: tach and speedometer were pulsing. Unhooked the batteries again; connected all the wires back together and now am back at square one; no fire, no recognition of key leaving the ignition once it’s turned on.

One factor may have been that the batteries were hooked up when they cut the wires….did something short somewhere? If it’s just a signal issue how can it sense that the key is “on” but not know when it’s “off”? I’ve ruled out the Sentry Module…how would it have started that time and I don’t think it would even acknowledge the “ON” position if it thought the key didn’t match would it?

Is there a test procedure somewhere for the whole start circuit/cycle? One with a detailed step by step test for each component in the circuit? I’m sure I can look and find test procedures for the individual components (Sentry Module, cluster components, etc) but it would be nice to have a flow chart or path or something.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. Think I got most of it in there but if you need more detail or clarification, ask away!
Hope someone out there likes puzzles!! I’ve had to quite trying or I’m going to scratch a hole in my head! Thanks for ANY info or advice in advance!

Wayne