1993 Chevy van battery shorted

My battery tray rotted and let my battery positive cable short out. Now when i drive it it stays in second gear and the abs brake light and the parking brake light stays on. The ammeter shows discharge but the battery stayed charged and the van ran for a half hour with the lights on. The battery is ok. Fuses in fuse panel are ok. Not sure what to check now.

Is this a conversion van by any chance? Your first step would be to locate a set of schematics for that van. Are you sure the abs light was'nt on before this happened? I can't figure how that would tie into things unless the computer module took a zap. as for the parking brake light, theres a wire that runs to the switch under the dash above the parking brake- once this gets a ground, the light comes on- try disconnecting the wire and see if light goes out. Good luck!

The same thing happened to me with my 1993 conversion G20. Actually, it happened before I bought the van.. the guy said it had shorted out previously and the ABS and PARKING dummy lights stay on now. The cruise control doesn't work either and I suspect the ABS doesn't either because the brakes pulse when I press them down (normally). I thought this might be the Vehicle Speed Sensor Convertor (DRAC), but it seems fine and the speedometer works fine as well, so that is not affecting the system.. also, switched the DRAC out with a few others and lights still out. Have you found out what's the matter with the dummy lights on your van?

Thanks,
1999Bravada

try testing the fusible link at the starter.there are 2 there and yes you have to drop it to do it. have fun.i just did it last week.

On my '92 the DRAC module died (I haven't figured out what died in the module, but I have a suspicion). If it dies completely, then you won't have speedometer, ABS or cruise control, and you'll get an error code stored in the ECM. It is possible to lose some of the outputs in the DRAC if one of the chips partly dies. I don't want to get too technical on this though...

RNRea,

I saw in another one of your posts where you have some information on the DRAC. Is this the same that's in the HELMs manual or do you have some extra info? I've read up on it a little bit and the concept seems pretty straight-forward. I think in my case, the ABS module has taken a dump because I have two other DRACs lying around that didn't fix the problem. Still getting ABS and cruise lights but speedo is working.

Johnny, did you ever figure out how to fix your problem?

1999bravada.

To be honest, I googled it up one day, and I can't remember from where it came. I have the pdf (complete with the author's name and all the advertising) and I have shared it. I should really look into posting it, or at least dig up the original link. The DRAC module was typically used on GM vehicles from about 1990 to about 1995 or so (rear-wheel drives), so it doesn't necessarily apply to all applications.

My troubles began during the first rain after purchasing the van (it had 196k miles already, so it was no spring chicken). The speedometer became erratic and the transmission quit shifting. The VSS circuit code kept coming up, so we began a *long* series of replacing speed sensors, connectors, the computer, etc., believing that the rain was causing a short underneath the van. It would go away for a while then come back (usually during a good rain). Finally one night the speedometer quit dead (and the transmission quit shifting). It was during this time that I stumbled upon the article about the DRAC module. I have had no problems since I replaced it. I now believe that it kept going haywire during rainy driving because I had a leak at the bottom of the windshield that was causing water to leak back behind the dashboard along the firewall, and that it would find its way into the DRAC module and short it out. I had already replaced the windshield and gasket before the thing quit altogether, so hopefully this won't come up again.

I drove two different transmission shops batty trying to resolve the problem before finding about the DRAC module (I guess most people don't even know that it exists (well, existed), dealer mechanics included). I suppose that there are probably other similar modules that are hidden away in vehicles that people don't know about and that cause a bunch of problems like this.