rknight

I posted about this in the full-size van forum but there doesn't seem to be much traffic there so I thought I'd try here since this is a fairly generic auto electric type of issue. I apologize for the cross post if it's against the rules .. I am new here.

The vehicle is a 1998 Express 1500 full-size van (conversion). The power door locks don't work from any of the switches or the key fob. I found the fuse panel in the driver side kick panel and found a 25A fuse that was blown. Per the diagram on the fuse panel cover, this is for "Power Accy". I don't have an owner's manual yet (this vehicle is new to me and didn't come with one ... I've got one on order) so I'm just going by the labeling. Anyway, I replaced the fuse and it sparked and blew as I was plugging it. Put a multimeter on it and the circuit is energized @ 12.7V. Given that it's a switched circuit it shoudl only be powered when the door lock switch is pressed right? So I figured there is a short somewhere in the circuit.

I pulled the kick panel off and got the fuse block out so I could get at the wires on the back of it and found a red and orange wire connected to that fuse. The red goes to battery and the orange is what is completing the circuit (I guess due to a short somewhere taking it to ground). I worked on unwrapping the tape and wire loom on the bundle of wires to trace the orange wire but it *looks* like it just goes to the firewall. I will dig deeper into that tomorrow.

Questions:

1. Does anybody know if tehre is anything else beside the door locks running off of this circuit? It is just labeled Power Accessory so I am thining maybe something else is. Although I haven't yet discovered anything else that is not working., A schematic would be wonderful.

2. Ant tips or tricks on how to narrow this down? I was wondering if maybe I should take apart a door to get at the door lock switch and try to jumper things and find out if the short is before or after each switch? Although without a schematic who knows what order they are wired in.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know electricity fairly well but I'm not well-versed in auto electric.