I recently bought a 1987 dodge van that was made into an xplorer RV. I am currently having an issue related (I think) to the ignition. The engine was running and on of the wires from the power windows came lose and shorted to another wire on the window control board. (The door panel is removed and the window control is hanging) When the short happeend the engine turned off. Now I have no power to anythign that requires the key to be on. Lights hazards etc all work. Blinker windows etc do not. The van is new to me so I was nto fiamliar with the fuses and wiring. I am more fiamilar now. Nothing in the fuse box (in glove compartment) is blown. They do nto have power tho.

I doubt the mechanical ignition switch is bad. It almost has to be a fuse, fusible link, or relay. After reading up some it seems like dodge liked the fusaible links in the 80's. I can not find any. My battery does not have a harness like I have seen online. The RV conversion and several years of other prople working on it the wiring is a bit of a mess. But still i do not see any fuseible links. I also tried follwing the wires from the stering column to find the wires from the ky and see what relay it goes to but can't find them. So many diffetn unlabled cables and connections. I found what I think is the ingtion connection on the back of the lwoer stearing cloumn behind the brakes. it has two connectors one is u shapped and has 5 wires. 4 are ground and one has 1v on it. The other conenctor is square and has 2 wires that are gorund and one with 12 volts. none of them change with key on or off.

Anyone have the answer? lol

I want to get a serivce manual but want to get the right one. The title says the modle is CB. I was told it was proable a 222 but it might be a 250. Donot know the dirrference or how to tell. I am assuimng the bas van is a dodge 2500.

thank you in advance for any insight on the problem or what manual to get.

 

It sure sounds like a fusable link. Can you take a picture of the unit? Especially any body emblems as they often will give you a clue on what the base vehicle is.

 

Trace the battery positive back from the battery to the bulkhead disconnect. There is where the fusible link will be if it has one. If not then trace power up to the key switch.

 

This happened to me in my 93, which was the year they stopped making that model. so i garuntee its the same set up. Let me try saving you a bunch of money... ill try my best to explain... so you have a red ignition wire that goes from your ignition to a cluster of wires at the firewall. if you pop the hood and look under, by your brake booster, the wiring cluster is wrapped with tape and sometimes an extra plastic guard. well if you tear that open you will find that red ignition wire, you also want to look for the 2 blue wires, there will be one dark blue and one lighter blue. hard to tell the difference. so anyway the darker blue wire traces all the back to your transmission underneath.sitting on top side at one of the plug ins, you will need a flashlight to inspect it best. look for any breaks in the wire. i found a break at the trans casing and my wire was grounding off at trans casing.... further more, that blue wire with the red wire at the cluster also leads to a fusable link headed towards the computer [ PCM] . you will have to tear that open and find the break and replace it with new link. very difficult tho if you dont have the right tools. it is wrapped in tape and also shrink wrapped into 3 different wires and you only have about an inch to work with. new link will allow more to work with but the wires get un proportioned and hard to tie together. was hard for me but i got it. you will also have to tape up the break where ever it is grounding out at.. mine was grounding out at transmission. this is what is frying the fusable link. also disconnect your battery when doing this. reconnect after the service has been complete. If you find any melted wires you will need to go buy the exact harness from a junk yard. the harness must be off of an exactly compatible model. very important.