wiring nightmare.. or something

[Xeek]

so backstory, everything works just fine. its a 97 sohc auto 4x4.
lever on seat broke so i couldnt lock it in place. so i took my rangers old seat, manual and no special options, and bolted it to the tracks. temporary fix. works fine. went to move the seat down one day and i heard a pop, dash lights dimmed damn near off (at night) while holding button on seat, seat no longer moved. soon after the 4x4 lights flash 5 or 6 times every couple minutes.
when i got home i realized the locks didnt work, so i messed around and figured out the windows didnt work. so i took the seat out and i ran the harness wrong and the most of the wires were cut into and shorted out....

alright so ive checked all my fuses with a voltmeter, and picked up two gems from picknpull for nothing. neither one fixed anything. now ive dug around and found out some relays can cause this issue.specifially an "accessory delay" one in a box above the gas pedal. still nothing.
also have issues keeping battery charged, and lights going on and off from low voltage. so new battery and all thats fine but back to original issues. replaced the "battery saver" relay in that same box for good measure, along with the "one touch down" relay.

still nothing, so ive moved to the back and dug out the relay box in the jack area, replaced door unlock, door lock, and drivers door unlock relay. once again, still nothing.
my last option currently is another master switch. or checking to see if any wires in the door boot are busted. still doesnt explain 4x4 lights flashing if its the switch or door boot harness.
all from a seat shorting out..



Update: problem was fuse #10 under the hood was blown. 4wabs pump relay. No clue how it was related, but it fixed it.

 

[LoquetusofBorg]

GEM mod. maybe?

 

[RandomNerd2000]

Sounds like the GEM to me, most of that is handled by the GEM.

 

[Xeek]

same conclusion i keep coming to... but ive tried two gems from picknpull. no changes to anything. not unless the seat still being in fried both immediately and i need to try another one with the seat unplugged..

gem also handles your wipers, and i have no problems with front or rear wipers

 

[RandomNerd2000]

I'd unplug that seat, or both seats rather to be safe, and try another one, because that sounds like something is toasting your GEM, I'd check the harness before the seat connections too, make sure something isn't hitting the frame, the car is older, and it might have a raw place in it

 

[Xeek]

Seat is unplugged now. But ive already tried the gems before doing that. Guess i need one more gem..
I doubt the wires on the body side are bad. The harness on the seat clearly got cut by my improper routing. But its worth a shot to check a couple wires

 

[Xeek]

so still nothing. havent had much time to mess with it. but ive replaced every single relay hidden under the dash, and a couple in the back by the jack. no relays are new, all from picknpull. but i grabbed around 30 of them and have been swapping out multiple incase any were bad.
and of course i have a new battery as mentioned before.
i checked the drivers door boot and tugged on a few wires related to windows and locks, they were fine. tugged a few extras for the hell of it, also fine.

only thing left to do again is replace the gem. i bought a used one on ebay for $20. this will be the third replacement, but the others were from picknpull and might have been damaged.
it may be the problem, but i replaced the gem both times without unplugging the battery. bad move? this time ill be unplugging it for sure just incase.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

Unhook the battery, that's likely your issue, computers don't like hotswapping

 

[Xeek]

i have unhooked it in general, a few times. but yea. i may have been frying it. especially with the door open and lights on during the process.
ive got some new used cruise buttons to put in that look a lot better than the current ones, so more reason to unhook the battery, or else id be in the hospital lol

 

[RandomNerd2000]

True, airbags in your face aren't too good from what I've heard

 

[Xeek]

so no success at all with the new gem. obviously something else is wrong. i had to have burned up wires when the seat shorted out.
i tested resistance on the seat plug, ranged from -1.66 to 1.44. probably bounced based on how tight i held the probes?

Im stumped short of paying ford to dig into it.

 

[NICE59FORDF100]

You say the battery is going dead correct? Sounds to me you have a parasitic draw somewhere and I can almost assure you this is a wiring issue, and it may be somewhere you can't see. Sounds to me when the seat shorted out the power circuit to the seat motor it overheated the wire and possible is shorting something else out to ground. The gems are not bad but they are probably seeing a short on an input circuit which is causing your issues. The next step is to start determining where the draw is by monitoring amp load on the batter while removing fuses one by one each to narrow it down to a certain circuit. And then checking continuity on that circuit to hot and ground and by unplugging any loads on that circuit to assist you on tracing where the short is

 

[Xeek]

The battery only went dead once. Tested bad and replaced. Its been sitting with a new battery for weeks and no voltage loss

Just rechecked fuses and #10 under hood is blown. 4wabs pump relay. Trying a new one now

 

[Xeek]

So that #10 maxi fuse under the hood was is. Why a 4wd abs pump relay fuse has anything to do with it i dont know. But its all working. Ill put together my new seat and hope it continues to work after

 

[Rickter Spatz]

I had a bunch of odd electrical problems come on - dimming/non-functioning headlights/brights/fogs - doing strange things across different positions of the light switches and more - blower fan odd behavior. Found and checked all the relays which are all over the vehicle and eventually gave up and took it to the Ford dealer. It was a rusty ground strap they fixed free. Not sure exactly where on the truck but something to check apparently during any electrical troubleshooting maybe.