Electrical gremlins and issues (and identify things)

Hello,
We have a 1994 1500 with a tow package. A few years back a mouse got under the hood and chewed through a bunch of wires - mostly ground wires but other various wires coming into and out of the fuse/relay panel under hood.

I have a little bit of electrical experience - as a hobby I'm into older German cars and I've actually made duplicate wiring harnesses (or pulled from other cars and spliced in good sections, etc.) so I'll be doing this the correct way, replacing same gauge and color pattern, soldering and using heat-shrink tubing, etc.

There are a few connectors that are all unused and rotting away. This is a fairly base-model truck. Manual locks and windows, etc. There are a LOT of unused plugs here and there in the engine bay. Some of them are very corroded and I wonder if they should be cleaned up and capped (does Dodge make parts for this?) or if I should simply snip the plugs off and terminate the wires...??

There is one three-prong connector that the mouse attacked and chewed up pretty badly. I'm hoping someone can identify this and let me know if it's needed or if I can simply terminate these wires as well. (hopefully the forum will let me post photos)

So what is happening is the rear lights are messed up. I assume that this is because wires are not grounded properly but I'm open to other suggestions. I assume once I fix all the grounds it will get better. When the headlights are on the left blinker bounces between the brake light and the reverse light. Are there any simple, obvious areas where I should look (other than the ground wires) to stop this from happening?

And what is this? Do I need it or can I simply terminate these wires and be done with that plug??

Thanks in advance for all the help!

Mine had a similar issue. The trailer wiring was at fault back by the spare. I'd check to see if any of the wires are touching

iSlacker816 said:

Mine had a similar issue. The trailer wiring was at fault back by the spare. I'd check to see if any of the wires are touching

Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll check there. Right now I'm starting with the front and working my way back. The lights and blinkers are funky. The right hand side (passenger) works perfectly fine while the left side is all messed up - the left blinker (driver's side) alternates between the blinker and the reverse light... and when the reverse light comes on it's both sides - almost looks a little like the old-school police lights.

Still wondering what that three-pronged plug is right to the side of the brake booster/behind the fuse/relay box... For now I just put about 1/2" of heat shrink tube over the ends of each of the three wires and zip tied it to the main harness. Do I need that or can I keep as-is?