Headlights pop fuse at battery Options

[dadaDaveed]

I finally put a battery in my 914 LS1 conversion today. Nothing blew up, nothing caught fire... a good start I think. I have the JWest fuse panel and as a precaution, I also installed a small fuse block at the battery.

Here's my dilemma. I can turn on the parking lights, but turning on the headlights immediately pops a fuse at the battery (I've gone as high as a 30 amp fuse). None of the fuses in the JWest panel have blown.

I checked the fuse panel, headlight switch, and headlight relay. All seem to be wired correctly with no visible shorts.

I currently have H4 headlights installed… for the time being the wiring is stock. A friend suggested the H4's are drawing too much current, so I tried again with the bulbs unplugged… same result.

I'm stumped. Where do I look next?

[Tom]

I hope you have a good print to follow. I will post a pic of what I have.
You have a short after the headlight switch. The power comes thru the key switch to terminal 15 of the headlight switch (E1). First notch of the headlight switch does not energize the headlights, second notch does. Second notch feeds power to the headlight relay (J) and the fog light relay (J7). It sounds like your issue it is before the fuses on the cabin fuse panel.
Your fuse at the battery is popping because that part of the electrical circuit was previously unfused. If this condition had happened prior to your fuse installation at the battery, you would have let out the magic smoke.
Tom