98 Dodge wiring troubles

From : bennyboy64 u33225 uwe

Q: i own a 98 dodge 1500 extended. recently i started it and the speakers just stopped working but under the dash on drivers side wires were smoking. i noticed that the positive battery cable was loose. so tightened it. a few days later.. the truck started to smoke again and this time the electric mirrors interior lights cd deck glove box light and a few other small thins quit working. again the positive batery cable came loose. now it is tightened and is good. i have checked all fuses and cant seem to see any blown ones. so my guess is that it has short circuted and fryed some wires.. but i cud be wrong. does anyone out there have any idea what my problem could be or even where to start looking for the problem any help would be greatly appreciated as a garage wants big money to find a problem like this. .

Replies:

From : big al

i own a 98 dodge 1500 extended. recently i started it and the speakers just stopped working but under the dash on drivers side wires were smoking. i noticed that the positive battery cable was loose. so tightened it. a few days later.. the truck started to smoke again and this time the electric mirrors interior lights cd deck glove box light and a few other small thins quit working. again the positive batery cable came loose. now it is tightened and is good. i have checked all fuses and cant seem to see any blown ones. so my guess is that it has short circuted and fryed some wires.. but i cud be wrong. does anyone out there have any idea what my problem could be or even where to start looking for the problem any help would be greatly appreciated as a garage wants big money to find a problem like this. if i had to deal with it i would look at anything not factory. alarm stereo speakers trailer brake control anything that was added. al .

From : tom lawrence

does anyone out there have any idea what my problem could be sounds like the ignition off draw circuit the fuse with the plastic shroud around it in the fuse panel in the dash. obviously its more than just a blown fuse as youve got a wire shorted somewhere that caused the smoke. check and make sure no wires are pinched in the framework of the dash remove the knee blocker panel and look around. also check all the fuses one at a time with a continuity tester/multimeter. eyeballing them sometimes isnt good enough. once you find the blown fuse disconnect the battery and check for resistance between the blown fuses socket and ground. if you find a very low resistance you know youve got a short there somewhere - locate and repair before putting a new fuse back in else it will just blow again .