95 ranger 4.0 electrical issues

[tattooedthomas117]

Good morning everyone, here is my problem. I have a 95 xlt ranger, it has the 4.0 an auto supercab and it’s 2wd. I purchased the truck from an old man about a year and a half ago it had no transmission in it but he had a “new” (junk yard trans) for it. He took it apart got ill and never put it back together and decided to sell it, no big deal I bought it as is I put it all back together then I got busy with work and life got around to working on it yesterday evening 1/8/19 got everything all buttoned up and put the battery in and as soon as the cables make contact with the terminals one front marker light and one rear tail light turned on right away with the head light switch off and it seems the turn signals are not working either which I think may be the flasher relay but the random marker and tail light issue kind of has me stumped. Has anyone had this problem and possibly how did you fix it thank you

 

[adsm08]

Are the lights in question on the same side of the truck?

 

[RonD]

Check for trailer wires in the back, see if any are marginal, lol


Lights come on in this manner usually because there is a bad ground somewhere, the device that needs a ground when battery is connected is finding it by running through those bulbs, that's the easiest path to ground
And bulbs are usually dimmer if thats whats happening, not full brightness

 

[tattooedthomas117]

They were both on the driver side then right before I went to disconnect the battery they were on opposite sides driver side marker light on and passenger tail light on and the light switch was never turned on

 

[tattooedthomas117]

Check for trailer wires in the back, see if any are marginal, lol


Lights come on in this manner usually because there is a bad ground somewhere, the device that needs a ground when battery is connected is finding it by running through those bulbs, that's the easiest path to ground
And bulbs are usually dimmer if thats whats happening, not full brightness

Okay I’ll check that out thank you I will let you know

 

[Ranger850]

Good luck