shinkai

Hi .. I got a weird problem on my 88 TII .. I was driving and the instrumental and dummy cluster died on me, the car still ran. The instrumental cluster still has lights on but none of the meters were working, 'cept the speedo (yes i know, mechanical) and my dummy lights all died.

Turned out meter fuse (7.5a) blew ... i replaced it, the second i turn the key to the on position it blew again. so i was thinking short to ground ..

did a little search and all i could find about meter fuses keep blowing was Icemark's comments about taillight circuit being damaged. I did have a taillight out at the time, so I did take a look, replaced the bulb .. everything 'seems' fine in the rear end. No work was done prior to this problem.

I took out the cluster .. everything seems fine .. nuthing looks burnt or damaged. All the pins from the connectors looks good i even tried the fuse again with the cluster unplugged but it still blew.

So now my question is .. .what should the next logical step be? According to the wiring diagram (and if i read it correctly) I should be taking out the fuse box, then start probing all the wires coming out from the meter fuse w/ a ohm meter and look for continunity (with the fuse out) .. then if i find a wire w/ continunity .. i've found my break in the wire ...

I really don't want to take the fuse box out .. because its a pain .. are there any other ways of doing this and futhermore, am i even on the right track?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. The electrical wiz's that can lend a hand is more than welcome to come by and check this out. Smokes (all types) and beer (ur choice) provided free of charge. I really like to have my cluster back and working. I'm located in Scarborough by pharmacy and finch.

Thanks

Bluecoop91

iTrader: (14)

I have a similar problem, and I'm still trying to figure it out....

Icemark

Not tail light. Reverse lights.

The reverse light switch, gets its power from the Meter fuse.

The most common short happens when a clutch job is done and either the mechanic forgets to unplug the tranmission when dropping it or other simular damage from the wires getting pinched or damaged from under the car.

shinkai

Thx Icemark. Would that mean that IF that is the case, then my reverse lights won't be working? So would that also imply that if my reverse lights ARE working .. then my problem has nothing to do with that part of the circuit ?

Btw .. does anybody have the wiring diagram for the fuse box ? I like to know how many circuits the meter fuse feeds to.

THanks again !

Icemark

Yes, if the reverse lights are working then you are not blowing the meter fuse.

In the FAQ for FC sticky thread found at the top of this the 2nd gen technical section



Please read the FAQ for FC sticky thread before posting. It contains many of the commonly asked questions such as your last one

shinkai

Thanks Icemark for the diagram. Seems very simple and straight forward at first just looking at the diagram. But once i get to the car, I'm confused again.

What I want to find out is, how do I find the wire coming out from the meter fuse to the junction that splits the feed to the numerous circuits that it powers?

Then again, is there an actual junction where this one line splits into 8, or could it be designed another way? For example, maybe the feed goes to the cluster, on its way, splits to the theft-deterrent, on the way to theft-deterrent it splits to another cirucuit .. so on and so forth? I've got no idea ..

I was hoping I can isolate the split from the meter fuse feed (b/y wire) to the cluster, so i can replace that entire length of wire, hoping that the short to ground is within it.

Would that be the correct procedure for fixing this problem? Any input at all will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

Icemark

unplug each thing at its plug. For example, unplug the reverse light switch at the switch, unplug the gauges at the gauges, unplug the alarm at the alarm.

Won't blow the fuse when the offending item is unplugged

once you figure out which thing it is blowning the fuse, fix or replace that thing

shinkai

Here's an update on my diagnosis of this pain-in-the-butt problem ..

After reading the FSM a couple million times, I've come to the conclusion that the meter fuse (b/y wire) goes directly to connector FI-02 right above the fuse box. (Please correct me if i'm wrong) Hoping that the short in the wire might be inbetween this connector and my cluster, I snipped the line and replaced the entire length all the way to the cluster.

at this point, i didn't care how the rest of the circuits (backup lights, pwr door locks, etc..) got their power (I still don't know), I just wanted to eliminate the short ..

Neways .. it didn't work, fuse still pops .. funny thing is, even if i left the cluster unplugged, it still blows.

This led me to think that it is somewhere inbetween the fuse and the FI-02 connector that has a short. So i started to rip out the fuse box to get behind it.

DAMN ! After peelin back the carpet, removin the rest pedal, takin off the 10mm at the bottom the secures hte fuse box and popped the push plug that secures the top of the fuse box .. i can barely flip this thing over to check out the other side. I have already unplugged the 3 sockets beside the fuse box hoping i can get a better view but no luck. There is a crapload of wires coming off the top of the fuse box leading to the topside of the dash and engine bay .. i see no connectors to disconnect ... what am i to do ? The way it is now, theres no way i can see the back of the meter fuse and find the wire coming out of it ..

any opinions?

one ghetto idea is to use a spade connector to the "in" side of the meter fuse with a piece of wire connecting to one leg of a 7.5a fuse .. the other leg of the fuse will head straight to my new piece of wire at connector FI-02 ... but thats really ghetto man ..

Any ideas/opinions will be greatly appreciated. Will keep on updating until I get this fixed or kill myself from frustration.

Thanks

shinkai

Thanks again to Icemark for your input. Unfortunately I didn't read your reply in time and my last post was written before I saw yours. That would have saved me a lot of time and trouble. Live and learn I guess ..

2moro I will reconnect the wires and undo everything back to its originate state and try your method. If it works I'm gonna kick myself and thank you again

I was wondering .. is there anything I can rig up to replace the fuse? What i mean is instead of buying a bunch of fuses and popping them .. is there anything I can make to replicate the same function?

Thanks

shinkai

PROBLEM SOLVED !!!!

Thanks again Icemark for all your help. This time it wasn't a component that failed. It was actually a short in the b/y wire going to the ecu. Thank god for multi-meters!!

I'm sure glad this is over.