Yea, but none are good. So this will be a long post.

There are 4 wiring harnesses that connect to the underhood fuse panel that ultimately powers everything on the truck. The front harness is for the front lights and electric fans, the engine/trans harness, the harness that goes into the cab and the rear harness for the lights, fuel tank stuff and ABS.

I've removed wires from each harness except the front. Below I'm gonna try to list everything I removed and everything I didn't touch to help any of yall figure out what the problem is.

1. Front harness
Unmodified except wiring for the horn was removed.

2. Engine/Trans harness
Here is a list of things deleted:
All O2 wiring
Knock Sensor wiring
Oil Level wiring
MAF wiring
Generator Battery Control Module wiring (gonna use a 1-wire alt.)
A/C wiring

Here is a list of things untouched:
Starter Solenoid (heavy purple wire)
ECT
Crank Sensor
Cam Sensor
Oil Pressure Sensor
Coil Pack wiring
Injector wiring
IAT
Throttle body related wiring
All Trans wiring

3. Cabin Harness
Here is a list of things deleted:
All Seat related wiring
All Airbag related wiring
All HVAC wiring
Cig. Lighter wiring
XM Radio wiring

Here is a list of things untouched:
Radio
Dash
Doors
All wiring that goes to the lighting related switches
Steering column wiring (except airbag stuff)

4. Rear harness
Here is a list of things deleted:
All ABS wiring
All trailer light wiring
All fuel tank/emission/pump/evap wiring

Here is a list of things untouched:
All rear lights (connects to the distribution block on the frame under the tailgate)

I probably forgot something here, so if you see something missing, ask.

No comes the problem.

I have everything hooked up except the engine/trans harness. I ran power to the underhood fuse block (were the alt. power wire connects) from the battery on my dodge and then ran a ground wire from the negative terminal on the battery to the fire wall ground. Most everything ended up working, but its acting very strange. Here is what does and doesn't work:

Alarm clicker on my key chain does nothing when I push the lock button. When I push the unlock button the head lights and dome lights come on but they are dim. The doors do not unlock.

None of the controls on the doors work

Brake lights work

Third brake light does not work

Cargo light works

Blinkers work

Radio works

Dash and dash lights work as does the dimmer switch

Dome lights work but are dim

The head lights, fog lights, high beams and DRL's work but the passenger side is very bright and the driver side is very dim

Question of the day: WTF!

 

I should also add that when I switch the light back and forth from manual to auto the blinker lights in the dash stay on but are very dim, and sometimes the passlock light is on. The various warning lights in the dash pretty much have a mind of their own some coming on and off at various times.

Also, I mentioned that nothing in the doors work except one the key is turned on, the driver side view mirrow changes to a weird color and the color is not solid but textured looking. This truck does have the rearview mirrors that dim at night when someone is behind you with lights on. Also the mirrors have blinker lights in them, and if I remember right the passenger one stays lit up at times but is very dim. The driver one never came on that I noticed.

It seems like a ground issue to me, but I checked them and they are all tight.

I have a feeling that tracking down this issue or these issues is going to be a nightmare. So many things working and not working at the same time I don't even know where to start. I'm bout to burn this pile of ****.

 

Any time you start pulling wires i think you are going to run into these types of problems. There are so many grounds through out the truck you may be missing a few?

Another problem is you powered it with a dodge!!!! The truck was pissed off at you big time. Try powering it with a respectable sorce and see if that helps!!!!!

Just a little bit more time spent and you should have this "pile of ****" one hell of a shinny turd!!!

 

Id mount some kind of batter in the truck before flipping out.

There's several grounds in the rear distribution block on the rear and under the dash of the truck.
Dim lights on one side is definitely a ground issue.

What did you mess with on the under dash harness. . . Anything with the BCM?

 

sounds like it might be grounding issues to me too

 

x10 on it being a ground issue. They will do all kinds of weird stuff with a bad ground.

I had one I took off when cleaning my frame and forgot to hook it back up. When I would hit the brakes the brake lights would barely light, and the interior lights would dim.

This also. I'd get a battery in the truck instead of running it off jumper cables and stuff.

 

I think when you cleaned and painted your frame you probably painted over some ground wires or mounting points for ground straps and therefore the contact patch has been compromised to some extent.
Does anyone have a list or a diagram of all the grounds that are in the harness? I know I'm gonna need it for my truck here shortly.

I know the main ones are
Cab to frame
Motor to frame
Motor to battery.
It's all the little ones that I have to double and triple check.

 

Ok, pulled the dash back out. Everything was plugged in, and the ground was bolted down. I think originally there were two grounds under the dash for the dash harness. One on each side of the truck that attaches to a stud in the corner right under the windsheild. My harness only has the ground for the driver side. I remember when I was working on the harness, all the ground wires that used the stud on the other side were removed as they were attached to wiring for the a/c. I never cut any of these wires, they just came out as I removed connectors for the various things that I deleted.

There are two grounds for the front harness and those were good. There is one ground for the rear harness and that was good.

Still no luck, so lets all keep thinking!

Something I mentioned in the post above was that my driverside mirror looked a little weird. It did this as soon as the key was turned on. I don't know what to think about this. Here is a pic:

 

Weird, looks like it self destructed itself doing the auto-dimming. Sorry, dont have any advice for you problems

 

If you are missing a ground wire under the dash, you could be creating ground loops and confusing the computer that controls the auto darken mirrors, keyless entry, headlights etc... It sounds like a lot of your problems are things controlled by microprocessor and these types of devices are sensitive to ground problems.
Don't give up, I bet you are close knowing that one of your under dash grounds has been disrupted.
Scott