1989 Ranger I did a ton of work and I'm about to give up "need help"

[BlackBII]

I have the wiring diagrams for '89 and I have an evtm manual for '92 that I can post if needed.

 

[RonD]

Volt/OHM meter can be your best friend

Put the black meter probe on a good Ground to metal for these tests

Any Fuse has 2 contacts(slots), the Volt slot and the Load slot
Pull out the fuse and use the volt meter to test which "slot" has the 12volts, if neither is 12v then turn on the key to see if this is a Key On fuse

Once you KNOW which slot is 12v then the other slot will be the Load slot, the one with the SHORT, if fuse was blowing
Switch meter to OHMs, 200 ohms, if that selection is available
(If this was a Key on fuse then you can turn off the key now, if you want, so battery is not draining)
Put Red meter probe on Load slot, if there is a short to ground then you should see under 10 ohms, 0 ohms is a direct(dead) short
Start unplugging connectors to see if ohms go UP, short was removed

Note on Meters and OHMs, when ohms is selected you may see an N/C in display, this means No Connection, touch the two probe tips together and you should see 0 ohms, direct connection
Some meters show a "1" when ohms is selected, touch the two probes together and that should change to 0, the "1" doesn't mean 1 ohm, its just a symbol meaning ohms was selected

Most Volt meters also have a Continuity test setting, has a Diode symbol, like this --<|--, a triangle
Select that setting, then touch the two probe tips together, you should hear a tone from the meter meaning there is no resistance(ohms) between the two probes, tips are shorted together

You can use this setting on the Load slot and Ground, and should get a tone from meter if there is a short in this circuit, so you can Hear if the short is removed by moving wires around(short inside harness) or unplugging connectors

This testing saves on fuses, and even circuit breaker fuses do have their limits, they will fail if they are "blown" too many times

 

[JayDeavor]

Good Morning everybody;
My apologies for no getting back with you yesterday. I will explain why and try to keep it as short as I can.

Yesterday morning I got on and read your replies and was so happy and eager to try them in hopes that I could get my parking light short figured out. I printed all the helpful replies and went to the garage to start. First thing I did was put the 15 amp circuit breaker fuse into the #10 fuse spot and when I turned on the parking lights, the lights came on and the breaker did NOT pop. I tried turning them on and off just to make sure a surge wouldn't pop the breakers and it did not

I got to thinking that I left the 2 plugs disconnected at the rear of the truck for the rear tail lights so I plug those in and still did not pop the fuse breaker. Thinking that a miracle just happened, I grabbed the old fuse panel and took out a 15 amp fuse and pushed it into the #10 fuse spot, pulled the headlight switched and the fuse popped. Now I am thinking maybe the short might not be strong enough to trip the breaker, I decided to to install the 10 amp fuse breaker just to see and when I turned on the parking lights everything seems to be fine. Lights are working and no problems.

A little confused as to why it would pop a regular fuse and not the breakers, I decided to just grab a brand new 15 amp fuse and try that. That is exactly what I did and when I pulled the light switch everything came on and it did not pop the fuse. I was either happy, excited, or under disbelief I kept turning the light switch on and off wiggling the switch and everything just to try and get the fuse to pop and nothing would pop the brand new fuse.

After trying to get the fuse to pop and couldn't I decided to run and do a few errands for the wife to get back on the better side of her since she dealt with all my frustrations of the short and after a few hours I returned and tried the parking lights again and everything was fine. By now I am pretty happy and decided to continue getting back on track of getting this truck built. For the rest of the day into the late evening hours, I tried the lights what seemed like a million time and so far so good everything seems to be working great.

The only thing I did after putting everything back together to square one like Eric suggested, was I pulled the harness that runs from the fire wall to the power distribution box and inspected the harness and reinstalled it. My only conclusion is that I disturbed something in that harness when inspecting it or it was just all the fuses that I was using from the other fuse box was just totally junk. I am really leaning towards the fuses because when inspecting the wiring harness every wire looked like they were new and not a thing wrong with them...

 

[4x4prepper]

When tracking down problems such as this, I remove the headlamp switch and look for a short and then I inspect the harness connector. Sometimes I solve the problem just by wiring in new lamp sockets. If you have LED 194s, check to make sure they are correctly inserted.

 

[JayDeavor]

UPDATE:
I think I found the problem last evening. It was late when I came into the house so I didn't get a chance to update last night. Everything was fine up to yesterday. Didn't blow a single fuse. then all of the sudden the fuse blew and I was right back to square one with the exception that I got pretty much of all the truck back together. The bed is removed and has been for a year now and I have a sheet of plywood laying across the rear frame and have been using that as a bench to store parts and tools.
When I got to the rear of the truck and get things restore properly I removed the sheet of plywood to have access to everything. After getting everything looking good and all the rust removed and replaced what needed to be replaced, I just threw the plywood back across the rear frame to get my parts bench back that I really missed. well in doing that and just throwing the plywood onto the rear frame, I pinched the wires that went to the rear taillights and didn't know it.
I am guessing that when I started putting things back on my homemade work bench, the wire must have moved around enough to stop shorting and when I starting putting lights back into the sockets yesterday I must have disturbed them back to touching and blowing fuses again. took me a few mins to open up the wire loom to find it. I am hoping that was my problem all along and now it fixed. I hope everybody is still following along with this thread and I can share everything that I did to this truck. It has come a long way to the point where I am at now. The young kid that owned this truck really beat the snot out of it and she was in bad shape. I didn't restore the truck to be a show truck I am building it to be a daily driver.
Working construction I had a lot of time to work on the truck this past winter, but unfortunately I am in the process of starting my work season so I will only be able to work on it in my spare time. I am hoping to get everything done and the truck in primer by the end of May.
Thanks again for everyone on this forum for everything you did in helping me get through my frustration I have a lot of hard hours into this truck and I just really didn't want to give up.... Complete update date and pictures coming soon

 

[4x4prepper]

Glad you found the short. I made LONG test leads, one black, one red, and installed ATC fuse holders (usually 15 amps) and use them to find shorts or continuity problems. If I skip the harness and still blow a fuse, I know it is the socket or something.