I did a lot to the car yesterday. I did a full red to black interior swap and installed a Racing Beat exhaust.

When I turn my headlights on they go up fine, but at the same time it blows my 10 amp tail ilum fuse. If I adjust the emergency **** the headlights still go back up. As soon as I install a new fuse and try to make them go down the fuse blows.

I guarantee it is in the wiring behind the radio since it is the only area I unplugged to remove for the swap. When I swap the dash I unbolted just the cap and the small plastic pieces, not the entire frame. This happened on my old 79 and I ended up swapping the entire harness in the dash to fix it. Someone please chime in as I can't drive the car without tail lights... Other than that it runs and drives fine and I really want to go driving with the new interior and exhaust!

***My number one question is how is the connector that plugs into the dash pocket clip supposed to look? Also there is a 4 prong connector with blue wires coming from behind the radio that is unused.


Thanks.

 

I just replaced the speakers in both of my FB's and there is a 4 prong connector with blue wires that drives the kick panel speakers. In one car I used the existing wiring and the other car I ran new wires everywhere. Sorry I can't help you with the rest of it but I would look for a pinched cable. These cars are around 30 years old and the vinyl insulation in some of the wires is a little brittle. If the fuse pops instantly there has to be a short.

Don't actually do this but you could put in a 100 amp fuse and then look for where the smoke comes out. That would most likely be where the issue is. And doing this could make your problems a lot worse than it is now.

Good luck finding it!

 

http://www.electronics-lab.com/artic...eter_tutorial/. Really the only help I can give. I've always printed out a wiring diagram and made sure the wires that have 12v are not grounded by the beeping sound with power off.

 

Well the short was in the RED/GREEN wire that ran all the interior/exterior lighting. my voltmeter registered continuity between it and the body. Basically I said screw it and removed the whole dash and re installed it. Seems to have fixed it! I must have goofed and plugged the wrong connectors together or left something loose against the dash frame. I did notice that the backside of the dimmer **** had a metal prong resting against the dash frame. Could have been a short. I removed the dimmer and just plugged the 2 dimmer bullet connectors together. Interior lighting is MUCH brighter. Dimmer could have been bad.

Thats what I get for doing an interior swap, exhaust install, fan/shroud/radiator panel, ACV block off, air pump removal all in one day! It makes it hard to back track and pin point a problem.

 

Glad you got it fixed. They can be a pain. Surprising about the dimmer usually those type of switches are either good or bad. But it is almost 30 years old.