My Dodge Ram 2500 van loses Ignition power when I put it in reverse and every now and then while I’m driving. The van still runs but the ac, blower and gauges lose power.
If the problem isn’t with the ignition switch then I would check the harness connections next. Tapping on suspected areas with a screwdriver handle may show up the trouble spot.
Thanks for the reply. After some checking I replaced the neutral safetey switch and that didn’t work. So I figured it has to have something to do with the reverse lights so I took them out and everything works perfect! I put the passenger side light in and it still worked fine, then i put the drivers side bulb back in and it started happening again. So I think the socket may be bad, weird huh? I read the chiltons manual at the store and found out that the reverse lights lead to a ignition cut off relay so if there is a short the relay kicks in and turns off your ignition line.
I have never heard of a circuit like that. I can’t understand why they would do such a thing and it seems very strange to me. If that line was shorted the lights would not work and it seems a fuse would blow out. Are the bulbs the correct wattage for the reverse lights?
Another thought on this, perhaps there is a bad power connection to those areas and the extra load of the reverse lights is causing a voltage drop across it and that causes the other things to die. I assume you aren’t blowing a fuse out so this sounds like the most likely trouble to me now.