So i'm thinking maybe I have bad ground or a wire touching somewhere. 1966 Skylark all stock. The other day while driving hear a small pop (this may be coincidental) and now my dash lights don't work. To clairify it is only the lighting for the instrument cluster. Turn signal flashers work fine, the red light for the high beams, idiot lights work, all other interior lights, and head lights work fine. Just the ones illuminating the speedo and fuel gauge, and after market tach. I checked the fuse and it was blown, pulled another one off the spare block I have put it on there, pops fuse again. I haven't had any time to look further into just seeing if there are any suggestions. thanks in advance!
Stick a piece of metal in there and watch for the smoke. thats your short.NO, Im not really recomending that course of action. I had done that on a pinball machine once to figure out which actuator wes shorting.. Your dash lights and the tail lights are on one main fuse then theres a real short fuse in the bottom just for the dash lights. Which one is blown?
My dash light/tail light fuse has blown twice in as many drives with the lights on. Need to figure out where the short/overload is coming from. Thankfully my Factory Service Manual came on Thursday, but was out of town all weekend so no time to look at it... I did get a chance to thumb through the manual and look at the wiring- there really isn't much to it so shouldn't be too hard to find (famous last words, I know). ~Kevin
the fuse that is blown is a longer one (maybe an inch?) that is a couple spots up from the bottom and says inst or something along that line next to it (I'm at work, on my lunch break I'll double check). So if that longer fuse is out my taillights should be out as well?
Well on mine (65 Slark) the short fuse on the second column about 4 up from the bottom is the one that blows - it says TAIL LIGHTS but when it goes so do my instrument lights. I still have brake lights... I also have four aftermarket gauges that are wired up by a wire just tucked in behind the glass fuse. I am going to tidy those up tonight and fix a questionable ground - check all the tail lamp bulbs and try it again.
Easy stuff first. Look for pinched wires, connectors that have fallen off and grounded themselves. A short circuit condition is usually caused by someone working on the car. For example, after I swapped a different 350 into my car the TCS connector was overlooked and shorted out against the block causing the blinker fuse to blow. Finally found it after blowing a ton of fuses. The screw driver fuse jump and look for smoke trick is dangerous and can cause you more work. I used it on a lawn mower with a shorted stator.
Yeah- I have some work cut out for me on this new (to me) car. There is a serious electrical gremlin or two lurking under the dash. Problem one is the rear lights fuse keeps blowing. Problem two is when I use the floor mounted high/low beam dimmer all my aftermarket gauges go dead for a second- they all "blink" except the A/F gauge- it goes back to boot up cycle with "warm up" of the O2 sensor. I no longer have dual headlamps, just a dual filament single so somehow the wiring on that got "interesting" The two could be related but not sure how yet...
I have two ideas where my problem may lie: 1) I installed an aftermarket tach and ran the "white line" for lights to the ashtray light socket, and i think that wire rubs a little on the back ash tray its self. 2) the previous Owner(s)? cut up the tail light harness pretty badly to install trailer wiring, so I'm sure that's something to look at. So there's all sorts of shoddy connections that could have fallen apart or grounded.
To help you find the cause of the blown fuses for the rear lights I suggest taking a blown fuse and soldering a 2-wire socket across the fuse and put a 12 volt bulb in it and put it into the fuse block. The light bulb will light as normal because of the short circuit. Begin disconnecting the screwed up wiring connections, one at a time. When the fuse/light goes out you will have found the cause for the fuses blowing. This is the safest way to do it since the bulb provides resistance to the circuit and eliminates a short. When the short is cleared the light will either go completely out OR will glow half bright because it will be in series with the normal loads. Good luck-
on the fuse block on my '66 there is a long fuse 3 down from the top that is marked "panel lights" that is the one which is blowing. There is a shorter fuse further down that is marked tail lights- Clock that seems to be ok. My tail lights operate fine. We had a ton of rain tonight, so that's as much as I could get done.
I will have to try this! I am handy with fixing mechanical things but I hate chasing electrical issues.
