Gotta love Dodge wiring...

Hopefully somebody has experienced this already and can help me pinpoint the culprit(s).

My radio shorts out when I use the turn signals but only sometimes...

Now it shorts out when I move the shift indicator from "P" to "D".

Other electricals may too but its the radio that's most noticable.

Any ideas?

 

Sounds like the harness on the column is chafed. Do you have a tilt column?

 

My radio started shorting out a while back...it would go off with one bump and back on with the next. I finally ran all new wiring to it. the only thing retained was the ignition power source. New speaker wire ground and everything and that problem was solved. Next, my brother bypassed the headlight switch after the 4th one burned out the second we turned it on...turned out the terminal into the switch was fried. Before long, my truck will no longer have Dodge wiring.

 

I wonder if somebody still makes a complete wireing harness for the 1st gen. I'm getting to that point!

 

I was having issues with my heater and gauges and lots of stuff going all wierd... after lots of searching I found it to be a ground... this ground that is circled actually...

Worth a check...

 

Yep its a tilt column but I never use that feature.

I've added extra grounds and cleaned the existing ones a couple years ago when I was chasing gremlins then. Didn't know about that ground Littlehoe, I'll clean that one up for good measure.

Guess I'll have to break open the column and start looking for bad spots? Is there a certain place theytend to chaf at?

Some day I'll redo all my wiring and use those fuses that Bearkiller found...

 

You can see the common trouble areas by pulling the column cladding and fusebox cover. You may have to drop the column to actually fix the problem, but that's just a couple of bolts - the column won't have to come out of the truck.

 

The reason all those wires are in the column is for convenience at the assembly-line, i.e. wipers, dimmer, horn, cruise, signals, etc.

You can mount a dimmer-switch on the floor WHERE IT SHOULD BE, externally mount the turn signal, put the horn on a button, mount the ignition-switch in the dash, move the wipers to a dash-switch, and dis-connect the cruise; then, the only thing in the column will be the steering shaft.


I love my non-self-cancelling Signal-Stat turn-signals and my floor-mounted dimmer-switch.

 

Have you checked with Painless wiring?

 

Their products skip from 1976 to 1994 .