Electrical Gremlins - Fuse 8 fried, no brake lights, again Options

[tadink]

Hey all -

I've done some research on the forum and looked at most / all of the electrical troubleshooting guides - but my issue has me stumped.....

71 Tub, 2.0L engine

My fuse 8 fries when the headlamps are turned on - but works fine otherwise. Well, it also fries when the wiper motor is turned on - so something is not right.

Other symptoms: When turn indicators are 'on' the e-brake big red light flashes

Upon inspection - I see that there is a jumper from my fuse 8 to fuse 9, I don't see that shown on any of the wiring diagrams I've looked at. You can see it in the pic below - a black wire from 8 to 9.

Some clever PO had a stereo system in there and much of the electronical connections are a bit 'non standard' but the stereo is long gone.

I don't have an e-brake and so the e-brake sensing wire is not attached.

As you can see from the attached pic of the fuse 8, it is not just fried but MELTED too! yipes.

Any thoughts on a process forward from here??? Can you tell anything by looking at the fuse panel that a newb like me won't notice?

note: I did get in there an clean the grounding point while I was upside down under the dash....

thanks in advance....

td

[Mike Bellis]

I had a problem with #8 and tracked it down to the brake switch grounding out.

[tadink]

I had a problem with #8 and tracked it down to the brake switch grounding out.

Thanks Mike / Dave - how did you track that down???

I'm out of 25A fuses now - any idea on a good source for these?

Forgot to mention in my OP that when the fuse8 is blown, stepping on the brakes kills the tach, and illuminates the big red e-brake light, as well as the turn signal indicator lights....so I'm thinking that someone may have been 'helping' the original electrical layout with some of his own 'good ideas'.....that jumper from fuse8 to 9 might be one example of that.

thx

td