Puzzling wires

[Oonrahnjay]

...  I'm a little disappointed with some of the responses in this thread.

     I hope that my post didn't come off like that.  Of course, it's hard to know just single wires from an Internet photo, but my response was meant to be polite, reasonable, and (within what I know) helpful.

[baker4106]

With the parking brake applied the brake light on the dash should be lit.

[luvrbus]

Don't they disconnect the hand brake and wire when they are equipped with Micro parking brake system 

[Jim Eh.]

The only advice I can offer is - once you do figure out what a wire does or where it goes WRITE IT DOWN.  You'll be surprised how often what appears blindingly obvious today can become a great mystery tomorrow.  I keep one of those label maker gadgets handy so I can make up tags for every wire I touch.  I also make drawings (I hesitate to call them schematics).  Sometimes just a little bit of additional information from the past will solve a current problem.

Another trick is to glue or tape a ziplock baggie on the inside of your wiring panel and put the "drawing" or notes in it. Sure as the sun comes up in the morning, when you do need that information it'll be "now where did I put that ...."

[Beesme]

I hope no one thought I was being sarcastic .. Just a lil humor ... The only thing you can do is check wire with multi meter and if it's hot, put a wire nut on it and trace it.then either hook it up where it belongs or get rid of it .hope that helps ...

[Iceni John]

Most skoolies have a 2-way radio  -  there may be an antenna on the roof to which some coax will run from the dash area.   They usually also have some sort of camera and DVR  -  I have a mystery toggle switch that only a phone call to the school district's head wrench revealed to be for the camera.   There could also be a PA system, maybe with an outside speaker.   Some school districts are quite adventurous when it comes to adding whatnots and gizmos to their fleet, so perhaps a call to their garage would help (assuming you know which district your bus came from).   Even if you get the chassis and body schematics, there's no guarantee they'll show everything!

Have fun, John

[Dave5Cs]

Seems like there's a lot of sniping and condescension going on that's really not necessary?

Sorry I was not trying to be any of the above.
Only a little humor to show that it was a question that needed more information, such as what kind of tools and meters, etc does he have to test the systems to find out what these wires are or go to and only suggesting that he needs to have a Multimeter and a toner or letting us know that he does. One of the two best tools in the box to find anything electrical if used correctly.

Anyone can guess but that actually gets him no further than where he was to begin with.
Sorry again if I sounded flippant.

Dave

[luvrbus]

Not many school buses on this site they are nothing like a bus they are more like a truck his is a truck

[gumpy]

Likely, the brake wire is not hot. It probably grounded a tell tale light in the dash when the brake was applied. I imagine it's either come off a spade terminal,
or the spade has broken off.

The two antennae wires will probably be fairly easy to figure out if you just follow them back to their source (or destination). 

I tried the tonal wire chasers once on my bus. They were useless and I took them back and got my money back. Multimeters and light probes work better for me.
Maybe I just didn't know how to use them properly. 

[Dave5Cs]

With a toner you have to unplug and disconnect batteries. No charge in the lines. Also get a good one with two wires so one is a clip-on ground then just turn it on and hook it to any wire. Take the hand help wand turn it down to the lowest setting you can here well. Note; to many turn it up all the way thinking they can here it better but it will just produce a lot of static. You follow the sound on the wire from where you found it and just walk or crawl if needed along where you here it getting stronger as you go or at least stronger in 1 direction than the other. It will pick up the wire through most anything. When it finds the other end you just mark it.

[luvrbus]

I don't get a long with toner either I use a motor cycle battery and a test lite to find the ends of wires most of the time if the breaker clicks I know I have a ground   

[eagle19952]

+1 

I don't get a long with toner either I use a motor cycle battery and a test lite to find the ends of wires most of the time if the breaker clicks I know I have a ground   

[oltrunt]

I can sure sympathize with anyone trying to sort out stray wires these days. Without a full wiring diagram its next to impossible.  Other than physically locating where a wire goes, neither toners, continuity testers, volt meters nor test lamps are much use when confronted with todays multiplex wiring systems as these tools will often present correct and incorrect answers at the same time.  I know that Thomas bus company brags that their multiplexed system reduced the number of wires in its school buses from 650 to 350.  I discovered that my Isuzu chassis makes use of multiplex wiring after spending 16 hours trying to ring out the head lamp wiring--one wire actually reverses polarity depending on its use!?!  I'm sure there are many others and I hope to never find out.  Jack

[luvrbus]

Multiplex wiring is that not hard IF you have the correct software I would hate to chase a circuit down without the software so I hide from Multiplex I had it on the Jeep 

[Lin]

You can trace where they go either manually or with a tone generator as suggested above.  It is most likely that most are doing nothing, however I would not necessarily remove them.  Old wires in the right place may save you a lot of work running new wires in the future.  They can be tied up and hidden to await that time.  As mentioned, if you figure out where they go you will soon forget it,so label them if you can.