Topic: Electrical Problems after harness swap

[sricruiser]

Hey folks.  I swapped an older style harness(round plugs into the guages,  glass fuses,....)  into my 1980 4x4 (SR5).  The original harness caught fire.   Everything is functioning as it should except for one fuse that is related with the guages and park lights.  Each time I turn my switch for the headlights, the fuse blows.  My oil pressure, ammeter (these are the seperate dials by the gearshifters) , hand brake indicator,  tach, water temp, blower motor for the AC do not work.    I am getting signals on the dash for the following, - high beams, turn signals, and the charge indicator when these functions should work.   I'm pretty sure that the rest of the dash funtions should work once the fuse issue is solved.   I have searched this forum and others, and have checked my grounds, and connections.  Before I go back and recheck all the splices I had to do,  I was wondering if anyone had the same problem that could chime in.  Just checking to see if there is something obvious that I keep overlooking.  Thanks in advance for your help.   

[crazykooter]

You have a short to ground somewhere. Like a wire pinched.  If its the head light switch that kicking the fuse then I would look at the wire that goes to the battery from the right side harness.(passenger)  Thats the main feed line for the voltage to the dash and head lights.  I think its the black wire but I cant be sure this early in the morning. 
To test this wire get a volt meter and then remove the cables and wires off pos side of battery.  Check the 2 little extra wires that connect to the pos on battery to ground.  See if it reads open or close.  I am suspect that one of those wires is pinched or the coating has warn off.

[sricruiser [OP]]

I think I have two connector that hook up to the positive side.  one goes from a green connector to a a small hole connector that gets bolted to the battery terminal.  I think the colors on that one  is a white and Blue/Red.  The other is a single wire coming off a green connector.  Are these the ones that you're talking about? 

[crazykooter]

Yes both of those wires.  The one thats only about a foot long is the one that goes to the headlights.  You also might try and disconnecting those wires.  The other wire is what runs to the alt.  So if you have a good battery you can have those disconnected and run the rig. Anyhow just to test if you disconnect the short one with green connector then try to turn on headlight(wont work) to see if it still kicks the fuse which it shouldnt.  If it doesnt kick the fuse then test it for ground.

[sricruiser [OP]]

Thanks crazy.  I'll try this out.  I remember looking at those wires and wondering where they hooked up to.  I took one and ran power to it, and the headlights started working, but the park lights and guages didnt.  I soldered a larger guage wire to that wire, so I'll check ground on that one. 

[sricruiser [OP]]

Well,  I got the guages to start working, but still I'm having an issue with the park lights.  My head lights and brake lights work properly.  I checked to make sure that my grounds were good.  The only thing I see that looks like a problem area is that the left side of the guages doesn't light up before the fuse blows when I turn the park lights on (if that makes any sense), and also I noticed that the Drivers headlight is dimmer than the other headlight.  After searching I found that the headlight dimming issue might be relay related.  Would the guage light/park light issue be related to the head light issue as well. 

As for the truck,  It ran awesome for about 20 minutes, and the truck stop running.     Turns out the electric fuel pump took a dive, so I replaced it with a mr. tuffy in line fuel pump, and now fuel overflows out the carb.  I'll be getting a regulator to see if that will help.  I did notice that the truck ran better with the new fuel pump installed.  The choke worked like it should, and the stumble that I've been trying to figure out for the last year seems to be gone.   

[Dr.Maxwe001]