Hey! I have been a member for a few months, but this my first day posting anything. I have already read a ton of threads from the 2nd gen section, now it's time to start asking some questions. I love my car (when it runs) and i have already had her for about 6 months. She is a white 1988 SE, naturally aspirated, nothing to special I wanted to keep it simple and learn about the motor before I jumped into a trubo. So far I have some awesome memories with car, I've had it towed three times, the first time was the second day I had it, and the most recent time was right after having my daily driver(1992 Nissan Stanza) towed. Thats just the storing of my life when it comes cars, I'm not sure why i like them so much. Up until recently I've had no problem fixing the issues, but now I'm just super confused and can't find any answers through the search. I think it's time to post on the technical page.

 

That is a nice story.
Now is there a question you can post?.People will answer,all you have to do is ask!

 

*Drum Roll*

 

Ya I have quite a few actually! I figured I would post on the new member technical page, but since you guys are interested I'll start by telling you that my 15 amp engine fuse blows (almost) everytime I try to start up my car. It's been happening for the past few weeks now. The first time it blew I ended up having to replace the the main relay and everything was fine for about a week. Now the fuse blows everytime I crank it over. But there is a kind of, curious, weird part to this story. A few days ago the alarm (it's stock) went off, for no reason that I know of. The next day when I decided I would try a few tests I that had read about, I noticed my battery had died(not completly there was still some juice left). I assume it was from sitting, plus it was old. So I gave it a charge overnight plugged it back into car, I then decided that I would like to blow another fuse, but to my surprise she started just fine. Amazing right? Well it was until I got into the car today, directly after replacing the old battery, cranked the motor and she spit out yet another fuse.
I have some ideas of what it could be, but I am just plain confused now. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

Sounds like a grounding issue to me, check your ground at battery and work from there. I am willing to bet something is loose, starter ground?

 

Alright, thanks I'll give it a look.

 

Not a prob, let us know what you find out.

 

The Engine fuse supplies voltage w/key to on for a few items so it should be rather easy to run down the problem. The fuse provides voltage to a Black/White wire and this wire runs to the alternator, the Circuit Opening Relay and the Main Relay in addition to the Lock Up Relay found on automatic transmissions so if your car is not or was never an auto then you have three items to look at. So disconnect the two wire plug to the back of the alternator and start the car and see if the fuse blows or not. With this wire disconnected the alternator will not work so don't go driving around w/o this plug disconnected. If the fuse blows then that is not the problem unless the the B/W wire in this plug is grounding out. If the fuse still blows then disconnect the two wire plug to the Main Relay and also the 4 wire plug to this relay. Then jumper the Black/green wire to the Black/Yellow wire in this 4 wire plug and also jumper the White/Blue wire to the Black/White wire found in this 4 wire plug as well. Doing this will bypass the Main Relay, and start the car and see if the fuse blows. Jumpering these 4 wires as specified will drain the battery if left jumpered so do this just to check if the fuse blows. If the fuse still blows then the problem would be from the other item powered by the fuse which is the Circuit Opening Relay located under the dash and to the right of the steering wheel column (relay and plug are Yellow and Black in color). Again, if the B/W wire to any of these components is grounded out by accident then that would also cause the fuse to blow. So see what happens as you do as suggested above.

One other thing. The alternator output wire runs (Black wire bolted to the alternator) to the engine fuse box and connects to the Main fuse so I would focus on the alternator as the primary cause of your problem. If you unbolt this Black wire "at the alternator" in addition to the two wire plug at the back of the alternator and the fuse does not blow then you isolated the problem. So I would start with this first.

 

Hey I finally found the time to do those tests. The results weren't what i was hoping for. The fuse continues to blow on each test. I'm assuming this means my problem is not related to the alternator. Unless the wires are grounded out by accident, if they were how would I know? What should I look for? I know that this fuse also provides power for the fuel pump, could this be my problem?
Thanks for the help so far.

 

Please reread my post which tells you which items the fuse powers as I already stated that the Circuit Opening relay powers the fuel pump.

 

SO what does it mean when the fuses blow on each test? Just a bad ground?

 

It likely means the B/W wire is accidentally grounded out. An ohm test of the wire would help you figure this out.

And just to make sure, there are 2 plugs connected to the Main relay that have a B/W wire but the small two wire plug is the one powered by the Engine fuse and not the 4 wire relay plug.