1997 Ford Ranger with LOTS of electrical issues! PLEASE HELP!

[cw40342]

I bought my truck about a year ago and I have been trying to sort out electrical gremlins ever since. The truck had been wrecked so I have airbag codes but the guy who owned it cut the wiring harness in several places on the passenger side. He also cut the harness behind the radio. I replaced all of it with wiring harnesses from a donor truck in the junkyard.

The problems I am still having though are:

- a random chime that sounds like a seatbelt alert high pitched beep...beep.beep and stops after a few seconds. But then after and hour or so randomly goes off again.

- I have no chimes for anything lights on key in the ignition nothing at all only the one random one.

If there is anyone who can help please do its driving me crazy.

 

[Mark_88]

Just going through some similar gremlins with my rebuild on a 96...

You don't have the same symptoms as mine though...if I push the wiper switch around a bit it goes nuts...but I just replaced the battery wiring and that seemed to have corrected it...my battery is probably due to be replaced (2009) but that's another story...

The chimes...I've got a bong once when the key is turned to the run position and if that bong goes off it's messed up again...

There is a box behind the driver seat that has something to do with the alarms...I couldn't find that one but found the viper alarm under the dash...hacked wiring but the PO did a pretty good job of fixing things...

If you have an after market alarm system that might be part of the problem...

Sorry I can't be any more help...but I'm on a similar crusade if that makes you feel less alone in it...lol

Oh, you might want to read up on the GEM system for your year...they control some things but not all and if the module is messed up it might be giving you warnings...as I think that is where my bong is coming from...the GEM module sits right beside the radio on the driver side behind the dash...it should have two sets of wires connected to it...and they can be quite annoying if they go weird...

 

[cw40342]

I will have to look into that one for sure I don't have anything behind the driver seat but I do know I have something behind the passenger seat by the rear speaker mine is a XLT extended cab the wires to it were cut which is one of the wiring harnesses I replaced.

Another issue I am having is the battery light wont go away! I have had everything checked battery is new alternator is strong driving me crazy I swear

 

[Mark_88]

Well I did read somewhere that the battery light can stay on if the white wire on the alternator is not seated properly on the connection to the alternator. I had a battery light also and not sure if I corrected it because right now the battery is not charged enough to start the engine and by the time I finished the starter wiring it was getting too dark and too mosquitoish for my liking...

But check that white wire on the alternator and make sure that is sitting snugly.

I think there should be a law against people hacking wiring harnesses...haha...not sure why they do it but it sure can be annoying when you can't figure out what they've done...I guess you know that better than I do...

 

[cw40342]

Well I did read somewhere that the battery light can stay on if the white wire on the alternator is not seated properly on the connection to the alternator. I had a battery light also and not sure if I corrected it because right now the battery is not charged enough to start the engine and by the time I finished the starter wiring it was getting too dark and too mosquitoish for my liking...

But check that white wire on the alternator and make sure that is sitting snugly.

I think there should be a law against people hacking wiring harnesses...haha...not sure why they do it but it sure can be annoying when you can't figure out what they've done...I guess you know that better than I do...

I'll check that for sure! As best as I can tell they did it to hook up a stereo ? they cut every wire associated with the radio and speakers and more