Hopefully someone has had this problem before. I lost the illumination to my instrument cluster and heat controls. Fuse#10 keeps blowing. I replaced my headlight switch and still the sameproblem. The old headlight switch got really hot on the tan with white stripe wire and cracked the plug that enters the switch. So i figured bad headlight switch. Nope, still blows the 4 amp fuse.I never ever had electrical problems with any of my vehicles till now. The # 10, 4 amp fuse has a bigger white with blue stripe and a small blue with red stripe exiting behind fuse box that I can see. I cant even get the darn fuse box out to access the back. Anyhow I disconnected the big plug that goes into instrument cluster(it has the same blue with red stripe).Also the illumination plug for the heater controls. The fuse keeps blowing. I cant even see a hint of illumination when everything is plugged in. It just blows fuse and a little smoke comes out of the rheostat area of the switch. Any suggestions would be great.
Joe in PA

 

late nite joe? fancy i'm joe from pa as well,
first off, your light switch is before the fuse, its hot because of a short, fuse #4, 15 amp runs the light switch itself, fuse 10 runs, ashtray light, you inst lights, heater lights, and radio. you have a good problem here, its goin to take a little work, first you should disconnect a few connectors, #204 is the ash tray light, unplug it, #298 is the heater, it plugs directly to the heater controls, and the radio, self explanetory, the instrument light is the farthest right connector on the back of the cluster. once everything is unplugged put the fuse back in, if it doesnt blow(hopefully) then plug one load back in at a time till it does, then you have your short.,if everything is unplugged and the fuse still blows then the short is located between the fuse box at fuse 10 and the connectors, there is a splice in the main harness near the top of the radio, this is the blue with red feed splitting to each load, worse case you'd have to seperate the splice to isolate the short, then you can trace it from ther,

any other problems let me know

 

Thanks again, can't wait to try. Forgot about ashtray. And I was wondering where they all came together to feed everything.
Joe in Pa

 

c00n you are awesome with the info you have and share it is great to have you here. It is obvious you are one of the pro's here.

 

, i never thought of myself as a pro, but i am tickled that you think highly of me, i've got a ton to offer, but i think of myself as even with everybody.
as to the connection, the main splice to branch off is just above the radio in that harness, exact location is unknown but the evtm puts it above the radio, i can check more at home tonite

 

Gee .. I was gonna have him unplug the tail light's momentarily........

 

?mass confusion, brain overloaded?

 

Wake up c00nhunter you are only in lala land. Man, we gotta lock for that door to lala land. LOL

 

good god my head is going to explode

 

Pop the release valve brother before she BLOWS. ROFLMFAO

 

i'm not sure why i'm laughing but this confusion is amusing, i am so lost

 

I got the biggest kick out of this also. As i sit here chuckling. ... Anyway what was this thread about anyway? Oh yeah I believe you solved his problem and we got out of hand. Hmmm?????

 

Well today I pulled ashtray out and unplugged the four prong plug(it was a bear to seperate)that feeds the ashtray light and lighter. I put new fuse in and Lights! I searched everything on that little blue with red stripe wire. I couldn't find anything wrong with it. So I guess that where that wire from the plug goes into the main 20 something wires that run along the bottom of the dash might be where the prob is. Anyhow I guess that all the tugging to get that plug undone seperated the short. And to access the large harness would be major pain. I am going to take my chances on this never happening again.
Thanks alot joe for the great advice. Im from Armagh, just north of Johnstown. What part of PA you from?
Joe

 

Congrats on the "fix". Sorry for al the side tracks we had here but as you see it was a fun ride.

 

i'm still lost, on that one statement, i am melting down, whats left of me resides in oxford, 2 miles from md and spitting distance from the herr's potatochip factory