i'm ironing out my electrical gremlins have noticed that when i put power to any of the fuses on my fuse block the headlights come on and the hazard flashers get power. (when the switches are on)

is this normal or is there a wire crossed somewhere? i thought i could just power certain circuits at the fuse block with my main power wire touching each fuse and energize just that particulare circuit.

so far the only things that aren't working now on my car are the brake lights and the headlights dont retract down.



and i'm so stoked !

What you are experiencing sounds normal to me.

If you want to energize only one circuit, you need to pull that fuse and energize the fused (_not_ the side that is normally the supply). This will result in the circuit having no overcurrent protection so you might want a fuse or circuit breaker in the wire you are using to temporarily energize the circuit.

Hope this helps.

Brian

Several of the fuses are tied together on the power side. If you can energize ANY fuse (literally) and get power to the headlights, then something is wonky. If you look at the wiring diagrams, the "power side" is on the left, and you can see which fuses are tied together. For example, fuses 1 & 2 are tied together, and 3 & 4.

Keep in mind that headlights are fused after the switch, so if you apply power at the fuse, you will get power to the lights even with the switch off.

Now that makes sense... thanks royce.


Hmmmm, i've yet to get the brake lights to work.
the switch at the MC is connected and the wires are connected at the brake pedal.

all fuses are good.

are there any known issues with brake circuits?

i'll figure it out tomorrow night if no one knows... i'm just pooped.

Had a similar problem, was charged an obscene amount of money to have it troubleshooted. Ended up being a bad plug connector. Somewhere in the vecinity of the steering column. Hope you can find it. Electrical problems are the worst. Especially when they change or are intermittant.

The brake lights are pretty easy. When you say "switch at the MC", you mean the switch at the base of the brake pedal (in the car), yes?

Apply +12 from the fusebox to one terminal, and run a wire from the other terminal to the left brake light, daisy chain a wire to the right brake light. Make sure you ground the ground terminal (there's only one) on each light assembly to a good ground. You can use an ohmmeter to check if the ground you're using really connects with the - post on the battery.

thank you all.

i found out a couple of things. the biggest is that certain wires have to be energized for other wires to work. i'm guessing they have power relays inline.

theres a big black wire that goes to the brake light fuse which is one.
the other is the big yellow wore that goes to the ignition switch. once they are energized all of my electrics work now. =-)))

there's one intermittent short when i turn on the right blinker. this circuit is part of the cluster that got melted at the steering column and hasn't been replaced yet. all the wiring in the column is replaced. everything towards the fuse block hasn't yet. there's only a couple of wires to trace to get that fixed. no porblemo'.