Switched Power/electrical issues

[Olered]

I chose to install a Pioneer cd player and Ipod controller in my 97D1. I'm using the crutchfield harness for the power/switched power/ground but I've completely re-wired for speakers. I've checked the fuses inside (not under hood) and all looks good. I now have no overhead lights (above mirror) nor glove box light. I read the posts concerning the glovebox grounding and causing issues with fuse 8. When I switch the overhead light to the ON position, the clock stops/goes away. When I switch it off, the clock comes back. I haven't been able to check the rear lights as it's too bright and I don't have anyone here to switch them on and off to look for a change. I thought I read somewhere that the glovebox bulb must be good or you lose other lights. I now also do not have remote lock/alarm. I had not problem riding around without a radio period only the lr plugs hanging out of the dash. Everything was fine. Now, if I unplug the harness as if nothing is plugged in like before, I have the above systems. Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Olered]

bump

 

[ptschram]

Jack:
I'll bet that somewhere along the line, you tapped into the wire that provides lighting for the radio and that dims the display when you turn your lights on. Go back to your stereo wiring and make sure you have everything wired correctly.

 

[RichardS]

Jack it's really hard to tell without knowing which exact wires you put where. Since you say stuff works when you unplug the new radio it sounds like you have some wires misplaced. I would double check everything, like did you disconnect all of the old speaker wires and disable the factory amps, and make sure that in doing this you did not accidentaly disconnect an unrelated ground. I would also verify that the Crutchfield harness is actually correct for your year of truck - plug it in and use a multimeter to verify that you are geting power and ground on the wires that the new head unit expects.

Assuming all of the above checks out, try adding one thing at a time on the new head unit. disconnect everything but the power and ground and see if that allows the head unit to work while not disabling other stuff. If so then move on by adding in one speaker at a time, testing, and so on. This should at least narrow down the problem to a particular wire or pair of wires.

 

[Olered]

Before (meaning with factory hu removed), the truck would act normal. I simply wired the hu up following the instructions and then plugged the harness up to the lr harness. I guess I'm trying to say that I didn't touch the lr harness only plugged the crutchfield harness up to it. A simple plug/unplug. I just find it strange that with nothing plugged up to the lr harness, the clock gets turned off by turning the dome light to ON. I replaced the dome light bulb and glovebox bulb. Going to go through all of the fuses and wiring again. I've never seen such tempermental trucks. My past Discos a 99 and 03 gave me zero probs with wiring or accessories. This 97 is definitely a Friday afternoon truck...

 

[RichardS]

You said something earlier about replacing the speaker wires, what did you do there? If you went straight from the HU to the speakers then you should figure out how to disable the stock amps since you are not using them, else you risk one of the old speaker wires grounding out and maybe causing problems.

If you are using the stock amps, are the harness and HU advertized to work with the stock amps? You might want to call Crutchfield on that.

I would double check every connection from the HU to the Crutchfield harness, and if that fails start checking with a multimeter, they could have given you a harness and/or instructions that are incorrect.

On this issue of lights acting wierd with nothing plugged in. Take it all back to stock, including the stock HU, and see if everything works. If so then could be that something in that stock plug shares a circuit with the lights and unplugging it breaks the circuit, maybe makes it hunt for a ground or something. Seems wierd but it's worth trying the experiment.

 

[Olered]

I've checked everything I can see except for the driver's (LH) side tail light which is out.
My glovebox like now works for some reason.
My light above the mirror stlil does not work and I changed the bulb. Guess Ill change it again to see. The multimeter is showing power to the dome.
I'm at a loss for the clock turning off when the light above the mirror is switched to the on position. I don't have a bulb for the lh tail light but would the tail lights be on some odd circuit that could cause the issues?
I'm worried is that I'm going to tear the truck apart only to find a bulb is out somewhere.
I've double checked all of the wiring from the new headunit.
I had to replace the factory hu due to botched surgery trying to perform the add-the-dpdt-switch to use an ipod.
I'm just baffled because I simply unplugged the old lr hu, wired the new hu to a harness from cfield, and plugged it back in. Bam, no lights, no switched power. Oddball stuff.
As for the speakers, I ran all new wire bypassing the amps and connecting straight to the pioneer harness that was included in the pioneer box. Not a cfield harness.
Do the amps need to be completely disabled/unplugged when not used?
Thanks for all of your replies.

 

[ptschram]

The aftermarket wiring harnesses I've seen and used were wired such that if one wasn't careful, the wiring tot he instrument binnacle switches could be inadvertently connected to the stereo.

I'm still betting on the new harness causing the issues.

W/R/T the dome light, is the light filament good to the ohmmeter (you indiacted you had a voltmeter)?

PT

 

[Olered]

Update-I changed the bulb in the lh rear lights. This solved my all of my light issues in the back. Before the fix, I didn't have any left side rear lights and no brake lights at all on either side. I double checked all of the fuses again and all look good. I'm going to replace every fuse with a new one regardless of it's appearance. From there, going to rip the truck apart to find the short in the constant power wire. The factory lr harness isn't showing constant power only switched (stated wrong earlier). I'm just puzzled. Unplugging the factory hu from the factory harness has caused so much.