Dash lights blowing fuse under hood

[thomcasey]

Hello all. I tried testing a different fog light switch on my galant. The wire was pretty short for the gauge dimmer, but I got the old one out and plugged the new one in. Now no matter what the 10a fuse blows when the car is running and I turn on the lights, no matter the switch installed. Although, it doesn't blow when the dimmer is unplugged. So now there are no dash lights. Is there a way to bypass the potentiometer? I pulled the gauge cluster, can't see anywhere the wires are shorted.

 

[transparentdsm]

are the tail lights out as well ? if so ive had this happen. there is a fuse under the hood thats for the tails that runs through and kills the dash lights as well. when this happened it blew out my dimmer switch.

 

[thomcasey]

yes, it blows the tails too. I replaced the fuse and left the dimmer disconnected. But, leaving it disconnected kills the dash lights.

 

[transparentdsm]

check the tail fuse in the under the hood fuse box. also try connecting the old dimmer thats blown out, turn the dial all the way down and off.

 

[thomcasey]

yea, did that already. Still blows the tail thee h set the hood

 

[transparentdsm]

things that make you say hmmmm.

 

[89Mirageman]

Is it possible you skinned the outer coating off one of the wires while stretching it to get it unplugged? I had a similar problem on one of the summit wagons I swapped over to a manual. When installing the dash after the pedal swap I accidentally got a wire caught up behind a 10mm bolt and a metal tab on the dash. Drove me nuts and kept popping fuses until I found it. Sounds like you have something pretty similar going on.

 

[thomcasey]

I was wondering about that. I definitely do not want to pull the dash, maybe I can pull the cluster again and see if the wires can be re-routed to give more length.