I have some more questions and help!

I was driving home in my truck(info in sig below) just bought it last Wednesday,first night driving. Topped a hill,no shaking no nothing,the headlights just go out,just go out...running lights still going everything..dashlights..everything cept headlights I bout flipped though cause I was out here in the boonies and couldn't see a thing. I pushed the light switch in,pulled it back out into headlights and they came back on,went back off,came back on and stayed on. Got almost all the way home and they go back out! Same thing..no nothing..just go out They flicked back on once then off,I pushed the switch in,back out,no lights,done this a few more times and they came back on. This was always on low beams to. I just pulled out on the light switch praying they wouldn't go out and stay out. They didn't and I'm home safe and sound but *** is going on here!?!?! Whats the problem? I need to know! I drive a good bit at night but mostly here on the back country roads,and without headlights you can't see the hand in front of your face. Could yall help me on this?!

On the other,it's rolled over the miles to a even # so I'm fixing to change the oil in this thing. How much does it hold,What weight should I get? I'm probably going to get Rotella or however you spell it. A Fellaguard filter or something to that effect would be a good one right? I need to just find a book on these trucks like a service manuel so I can learn to work on them. Any help on where to get a book like this? Thanks for any help and sorry for all the constant questioins!!

Jimmy

 

11 1/2 qts 15w40 just save the extra 1/2 quart for a little later. They use a little oil naturally when idleing, because they don't maintain operating temp.

Electrical trouble is common because of different metals used in the connections. Clean your light switch thoroughly, at this point it may even need replacement. I went through $10 in fuses one night trying to make it home. I cleaned the crud off and haven't had a problem since. Also check the cowel above your tob dorr hinges for cracks. This will let water run in behind the dash. Some guys patch it with metal, some just caulk it, try a search on cowel craccks, for further if needed.

OBTW, you should clean every electricla connection under the hood and use the dielectric grease. Clean the battery grounds too. This will also prevent voltage problems that may kill some expensive parts. Just remember, Cummins only made the engine....

 

The factory service manual is worth every penny. www.techauthority.com is where I got mine. I second the headlight switch, old Dodges are notorious for bad headlight switches. Wally-Mart has the best price on oil. Rotella, Delvac, and Delo are all popular brands and will work fine. As long as it says CI-4 and 15W-40 on the jug and was made by an oil company you've heard of, it's good enough. I'll probably catch hell for saying this but the Super Tech filters at Wal-Mart are OK for a 12 valve, too. Fram is bad news. I'm running Donaldsons because the local truck parts store sells them, the trucks at work are all on Baldwins. It's not like Dodge is going to void your warranty if you don't run Fleetgaurds. If you can get them easily, great, but don't get obsessed with it.

 

get a new light switch, I think what happens is it heats up and the internal circut breaker shuts it off till it cools. Yeah, I know about lights out on a 2 lane mountain road at 60 mph. scared the you know what outta me.

 

Ok I'm about ready to die. After I got back last night I looked at the truck. The lights and all worked on it. Except when they went out on me on the road. It sat all night and about half of the day today. My pappy and me went to town in it to meet a friend,I noticed when we left the turn signals did not light up in the dash. Didn't think much of it,got to town,checked the lights, and it didn't have ANY brake lights and NO turn signals at all. Tried the headlights,they work,running lights and all work to. We got back home and I thought I'd check to see if I had blowed a fuse. I put a fuse in the headlight slot cause it looked a little old. Checked it,still no turn signals or brake lights or anything. I cranked the truck up,noticed that after everything went off,I looked and the Brake light and the light on the bottom of the message board on the dash was still lite up. I thought that was a bad sign,I remembered that I turned the flashers on last night but they didn't even work I don't remember if I left them on or off(the flashers that is) I pushed the little flasher button down and I had the left turn signal light on,then all of a sudden the turn signals started working,this is while it's still running. Brake lights and all,push the little flasher button and it comes up,no flashers or anything. I shut the truck off and I'm kinda bum-fuzzlied then I smell smoke and see if coming through the crack of the fender/firewall,jump out and run to the front,don't see fire or anything,I get the battery cable off and it stops smoking and I'm shaking all over,I thought I had done burnt my truck to the ground..I'm gonna walk over here and My grandpaw looked it and said it looks like a fuseable link(factory one he said) just shorted out and burnt up..I don't know because I don't know about diesels or wiring at all....so now the battery cables are off the truck,I'm afraid I'm going to look out the window and see my truck burning to the ground right next to our shop full of paint! I'm afraid to even plug the battery back up to roll the windows back up. has happened!?!? This happened after the headlight moments going down the road...I just feel like..I don't know what now,I love this truck but I goofed up and pulled the neutral safety switch out enough to where it wouldn't fire,so that has scared the out of me once,then the headlight moment and that scared the mess out of me...now today the lights won't work and wiring started smoking...I think this truck hates me yall...Sorry for the long story but now I'm scared half to death of this truck,every time I touch it something goes wrong


Forgot to mention,there is some looking wiring on the drivers inner fender(this is where the smoke was coming from) Someone put a hydro winch on it but it has some wiring run to a little breaker it looks like and a few to the hot side of the battery,looks like they took a 50 ft long wire,just wrapped it up after they got it ran to where they wanted and tied it off. Also there is a fuse=able link wire laying on the fender that runs under the firewall but its just a naked wire laying on the inner fender ....I don't know what to do now

Jimmy

 

Until you get the wiring figured out you will proably have all sorts of problems. Suggest you get a wiring diagram. Break it down into small sections, like ignition circuit, exterior lights, interior stuff. Get a test light and a multimeter and get to work. Confirm basic wiring is correct with the multimeter before you get too far. After a bit then use the test light to confirm voltage is flowing were it is supposed to be. It is possible to have an ohm meter show continuity, but current will not carry. Remember that current and voltage are two different animals.

Good luck. Just take it slow.

Ed

Ed

 

For the last hour or two I've been looking through Electrial things on the site. Searching looking for people with some of the same problems. I noticed people saying check connections and look for corrosion. Below I'll list a few other problems I have,tell me if this is all related to the headlight switch and why it burnt that fuse-able link into. I know some of this stuff isn't related to the headlight switch but help me out anyways if you can.

1.If you turn the headlight switch on when the key is not in it,the water temp and oil press. gauges pegs out.

2. My flashers do not work at ALL. I pressed it down once,they didn't work,then that disabled my turn signals and my brake lights didn't work.

3. Last night like I've said above,the headlights would flicker on and off but all the running lights would work. Push the switch in and pull back out and they would work,might have to push and pull a few times for it to work.

4. I've also noticed that my turn signals blink REALLY fast. They start kind of slow but they blink really fast.

5. I don't know what the problem is here but I'd really like it fixed. My cruise doesn't work! It has the On and Off switch on the steering wheel,you have to push hard on it then it'll pop to on but it doesn't work. What is the problem here?

6. My headlights are goofy,the drivers side light is good and bright but the passengers one isn't bright at all. They both work on Hi and Low but the passengers side one is always dimmer,is this just a problem with a old light? Would I be best to just go buy two new ones?

7. This truck has a big ole hydro winch on and has some crappy wiring ran on it and I'm thinking some of my wiring problems maybe through the winch wiring.

8. It has a extra transmission cooler ran behind the cab,between the back of the cab and back tires on drivers side. It has a electric fan on it but it's got mud in it somehow(I'm thinking from mess off the front and rear tires slinging onto it. So now the electric fan is locked up so it ain't helping a whole lot. Where could I possibly move this thing to where it could say protected from mud and dirt but still be able to some good amount of air through it,I'm going to put another electric fan on it so hopefully it'll work again.

9.Where in heck can I get a wiring diagram for this truck so I can understand what is what? I'm not going to work on the wiring,we have a good friend who knows his stuff with wiring but having a diagram would help ALOT

10. I looked at that website wannadiesel gave to me for a service manuel but they only go back to 1994....so where is a place that sells '93 Service Manuels?

11. What about the fuel filter,where is it located on the motor, I know people was saying it needs replacing,also about having to prime it before you fire it. Or would all this be explained in the Factory Service Manuel?

12. On what people were saying bout checking for corrosion on all connections. What should I do to fix this? What can I put on them to keep them from corrioding up again? I've been people put just like wheel bearing grease on the battery posts but I haven't got a clue what that is for...help me out on this please!

Sorry for all the questions,I just post whenever something goes wrong or whenever I think of more questions. I've found out about a diesel mechanic pretty close to me that they say is the best in the US,said people from CA have drove here to BFE Alabama for him to work on a truck. I'm going to see if he can help me out and possibly work on the truck,puttin in gauges,belt/hose change and all that stuff that I don't know much about on these trucks. I'm hoping he will be my big help. Thanks yall

 

It sounds like some of these electrical problems are due to bad grounds, like the headlights and the gauges jumping.

8. If you don't tow, just unplug the fan so it's not trying to run. That is an optional cooler for heavy towing, unnecessary for just driving around.

9/10. They must only go back 10 years, I bought mine last year. Maybe call the customer service number to see if you can get one. I can't believe they'd throw them all away after 10 years. I'll be sending you a PM in about 5 minutes.

11. Fuel filter is just to the rear of the injection pump, looks like an oil filter with a couple of wires hanging off it. Fill the new one with fuel, make sure you replace the o-ring in the center (you'll see what I mean when you take it apart), and it will fire right up. If you want you can open the bleed screw located on the outlet banjo bolt and pump the priming lever on the lift pump until fuel comes out around the bleed screw, but it's not usually necessary. I know your next question will probably be "What's a banjo bolt?", so here's the answer: Banjo bolts are the bolts that hold fuel lines on, look on the filter mount for a bolt holding down a line that has a smaller bolt threaded into the head. The smaller bolt is the bleed screw, just loosen that a turn to bleed the filter.

12. At auto parts stores they sell little tubes of dielectric grease that you put in light sockets and such, it'll probably be by the Permatex and the JB Weld. I think a lot of the problems are due to bad grounds, this can cause lots of current to flow through places it shouldn't go.

 

Hey Mopar Kid, check your PM's.

 

Thanks for the help Dave!

On the tranny cooler part,it is going to be towing a good bit so I need it to work and work good,I'm going to see if this "diesel mechanic" can put in a trans. temp gauge,pyro and boost for me so I can keep a check on all of them when I get all the bugs worked out of this truck

Jimmy

 

If you can't get the fan going again, Summit and Jeg's both have trans coolers that are very similar to the original one, you could just swap one in there and be done with it.

 

Installing the gauges is not rocket science. If you do it yourself, you'll be more familiar with the workings of your truck. Get that winch wiring out of there, then rewire it safely. They may have involved the headlight switch in the wiring and this got damaged. It won't "hurt" to replace it, and pssssst, CLEAN YOUR CONNECTIONS!

Occasionally, I've seen manuals on E-bay. I think you can still get a 93 from the dealer.

 

Here are some pictures of the great wiring on my truck. All these pictures are of wiring on the drivers inner fender

This is the "ground wire" from the neg. cable that I've been told to check for a good ground...its not even hoooked up:rolleyes:


Heres the huge mass of electrical wires running from the pos. cable[yuk]


Here's the mass of bundled up wiring,most of it is for the little "breaker" and junk for the hydrologic winch.


The wire that is cut that I'm holding I believe is a fusable link that is in with the original wiring harness,then the other orange wire right under it that I'm holding is not cut,burnt or anything and this is the wire that got really hot when I seen smoke come from under the hood...but I can't find where it is cut or burnt or anything:confused:


Here is a plug-in that is right close to the drivers side hood hinge but it's not plugged to anything and I can't find anything that it's supposed to plug into!:confused: again


Here is the line running to the PS pump that runs the winch. I'm wanting to take the winch off,I know nothing about hydrolics but is there any way to plug this hole or anything so I can take the winch off? Here is what it looks like,looks just like a reg. PS hose I reckon.


Maybe this will give yall a idea of some of my problems with the wiring. But the main thing is,what the heck is one of the fuseable links cut,and what is that black plug for? I thought it might be for the cruise control because my cruise doesn't work,but I want it to work! Help me on that if yall can. Someone said replace the "flasher button" if the flashers don't work. Is that just in the steering column or what? Thanks for any light yall can shed on this

Jimmy

 

Jimmy, If your looking for a factory service manual call these guys, http://members.ebay.com/ws2/eBayISAP...userid=faxbook They didn't list one on their website but they do have them in stock.

 

The plug that's not plugged into anything is the diagnostic port for the computer, nothing wrong there.

A new high pressure side power steering hose will let you hook directly from the pump to the steering box and just bypass the winch for now, but lots of guys would kill for a hydraulic winch. If it was me I'd leave it on and just have somebody help you figure out the winch wiring and redo it.

I wouldn't start chucking parts at the truck until you have a wiring diagram and somebody who knows how to read it.