So yet another problem. With my car, my dad (a well trainedcar audio technician) hooked up a new head unit in my 79. It worked fine when I first turned it off, but when I was driving home it turned off at a stop light, I try to fidgit with it and it sparked, and my gauge lights turned off. Then I get home and my lights wouldn't go down anymore. Any ideas

 

You might have to take the radio out & rewire everything b/c you don't know what they did to it before. Check the fuse box, where you power the radio from and do some troubleshooting and you should find it. Unhook the radio and recheck everything.

 

Sparks are never good; you blew a fuse because something shorted out.

 

the only wires coming out of the radio that will be hot enough to create a spark and cause the symptoms you described are the ign and batt power wires. one of them is grounding out on something and blowing a fuse. my suggestion is to replace both wires with new ones, and install new fuses in the circuit. you shouldnt have any issues after that.

 

So should I just take this issue to a car stereo place and have them correct this problem?

 

There's really no reason you couldn't do this yourself. Pull the deck out and find the wire thats causing the short. Since this just started happening when the deck was installed it most likely has something to do with the deck, so it should be easy to track down. Try yourself first, if it gets frustrating THEN take it to a shop. You'll be kicking yourself if you have to spend money and it turns out to be something simple. Tell your dad about the problem. If he's as well trained as a car audio tech should be, he should have no problem finding the issue.

Good luck.