Few Electrical/Wiring Questions

[Acizzle423 10+ year member]

Basically, to make it short and simple. I have a Ranger ext. cab. My wiring from the battery runs behind the rear seats. Basically I was looking over my work. Cut on the H/U and start smelling a burning smell. I immediately cut power to the H/U and unplug the door speakers, initially thinking this was the problem. However after further inspection I saw a small line of smoke coming from the red power wiring. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif Anyways, I inspect it and see that the 0/4 wiring is actually making contact with the metal on the seat/frame. I'm not too savvy on wiring, etc, but I put some duct tape around where the wiring has been damaged. The way the body shop ran it is behind the backseat yet through a bracket that opens/closes the seat, so I'm assuming that all the closing and opening of the seat stressed the plastic(w/e it is that surrounds the wiring) to the point it stripped(so to say). Should I be safe with the electrical tape covering it? I'd like to take it back to the shop, but this has been over a year and I have no receipt or anything.

Another question is when my first H/U was installed, the jackass who did it cut the factory harness. This has been over three years ago but I'm actually just now wanting to actually fix it. Basically when the asshat did it he cut my harness(claiming that he knew what he was doing, not sure on that. He could have done it on purpose or just a honest mistake). Either way my factory "alarm" doesn't work correctly and my power windows will open even w/o the ignition switch on. I also believe this is somehow got the electrical system still pulling a current while the truck is off due to the fact I've been through quite a few batteries. Is this something I could possibly fix myself or is it a bigger issue than that?

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[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

Basically, to make it short and simple. I have a Ranger ext. cab. My wiring from the battery runs behind the rear seats. Basically I was looking over my work. Cut on the H/U and start smelling a burning smell. I immediately cut power to the H/U and unplug the door speakers, initially thinking this was the problem. However after further inspection I saw a small line of smoke coming from the red power wiring. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif Anyways, I inspect it and see that the 0/4 wiring is actually making contact with the metal on the seat/frame. I'm not too savvy on wiring, etc, but I put some duct tape around where the wiring has been damaged. The way the body shop ran it is behind the backseat yet through a bracket that opens/closes the seat, so I'm assuming that all the closing and opening of the seat stressed the plastic(w/e it is that surrounds the wiring) to the point it stripped(so to say). Should I be safe with the electrical tape covering it? I'd like to take it back to the shop, but this has been over a year and I have no receipt or anything.
Another question is when my first H/U was installed, the jackass who did it cut the factory harness. This has been over three years ago but I'm actually just now wanting to actually fix it. Basically when the asshat did it he cut my harness(claiming that he knew what he was doing, not sure on that. He could have done it on purpose or just a honest mistake). Either way my factory "alarm" doesn't work correctly and my power windows will open even w/o the ignition switch on. I also believe this is somehow got the electrical system still pulling a current while the truck is off due to the fact I've been through quite a few batteries. Is this something I could possibly fix myself or is it a bigger issue than that?

To be safe, I'd get another power wire. Try to run it underneath the panels between the carpet and the frame of the car. Not sure how clear that is, but try that.

Never EVER cut the factory harness. Do you still have it? I would rewire that and buy a harness from the store. Something was wired wrong that's why you are still getting power with the ignition off.

 

[jrwalte 10+ year member]

You'll probably have to go to a dealership and order a new harness and crimp it back on to the original wiring if you want the harness. The harness being missing itself wouldn't cause any of your problems, as long as it was rewired correctly by the guy that cut it off. If you get a wiring diagram, you can make sure everything is wired correctly and not use the harness.

I'd also replace the 4/0 damaged wire. If it's too expensive to replace the whole line, I'd at least replace the damaged section by either butt splicing into the wire at the damage or just install another ANL fuse holder and run this new wire to your distro block (this way you only have 1 splice instead of 2 on your wire).

 

[Acizzle423 10+ year member]

Thanks fellas. The factory harness looked exactly like this. I'm basically going to do as jrwalte said and recrimp the cut wires with the new ones and wire everything as it was supposed to do. I did get the correct part though right?