when I turn the ignition on, the consul lights come on, I can hear a the fuel pump strain, a see the voltage meter drop, a fuse burns out, then fuel pump increases, and voltage meter comes back up to 12 v, and the consul light won't light up when I turn on the head lamps.

I took out the rheostat that controls the consul's brightness.

There is a short somewhere? and the consul should be controlled by the rheostat, but it is getting electricity from somewhere else!

WTF is going on???

 

what fuse burns out figure that out and you will have somewhere to start looking for the short it sounds like a direct short draining the entire electrical system then blows the fuse out so stops the drain of electricity knowing witch fuse would help pinpoint the problem MY 2 cents is you have a short under the dash concerning your dash lights that explains no dash lights after the fuse blows out but not sure as we don't have all the info on the problem but I would look for fubared wires breaks in the insulation chewed by mice ect. good luck