Ok,

I admit it.

Wanted to start the car for the first time since winter storage but the old battery was worse than dead flat so I thought I'd jump it from my loose 12V marine battery and drive down to the store and get a new battery. Except I got the polarities mixed up!!! Since the Fb battery was so flat, there was no exciting display of sparks. The main engine fusible link puffed up in small cloud of smoke. And I realized my error - total time maybe 20 seconds.

Resoldered the link as a temporary measure and went and got a new battery. Everything is fine . Except three weird things.

Cigarette lighter fuse also blew.

Dome light no longer works at all.

Amplifier also dead, radio head unit ok. The amplifier is tapped right to the positive terminal but the inline fuse appears ok.


Ideas?





Thanks!

 

I'd start by dissing the cigarette liter, dome light and amplifier, you don't really need those things.

Does it start?

 

Everything else works fine and runs as normal. You need the dome light, lighter and amp, especially the older you get!

 

Check for the hidden fuses in the emissions computer, behind radio, and theres a fusabke link in the ignition switch wiring.

 

Thanks! But can others confirm that there are indeed hidden fuses behind the radio (1985). I don't really want to pull the head unit out to check unless I have to! And I don't also see any fusible links in the ignition circuit in the the factory service manual, only the three that come right out of the positive terminal of the battery.


Looks like after replacing the fuse panel fuse, the light, hazard lights and dome are still dead. Glove box light works!

Jim

 

Its possible that before the main fuse blew the ground or main 12v wire for those circuits fried.

 

Ive unloomed several harnesses for my engine swap lately and there have been a few fried wires that were buried under all the 30 year old tape. Who knows what happend to yours.

 

Unfortunately, due to the fact there aren't actually all that many fuses, I've found lots of odd things spliced into circuits you wouldn't necessarily expect. For example, I recently discovered that the stereo (aftermarket) and the little light in the door lock are both wired into the "Hazard" fuse circuit... presumably because it's a non-switched live. How did I find out? The wire to the door light came adrift, got chewed up in the doorhandle mechanism and then caught fire. Fortunately it popped the fuse and the stereo cut out... shortly before the smell of burnt wiring filled the cabin.

Sadly, if you have only a few random faults then the odds are it's nuked the specific wiring rather than an entire circuit. I can confirm that my stereo does indeed have an inline fuse with it that was clearly part of the installation wiring when the PO put it in. And oddly, despite being a 10 amp lower rating than the Hazard fuse, it didn't blow