89BlackBirdKid

My car waas currently broken into. When this happened the power wire from my head unit hit the body and toasted a line somewhere. There's two catches, one is that I was using the power source from the ciggerette lighter, and what happens is the headlights will come up and turn on no other lights thought. No gauge, sidemarkers or taillights. When I turn the headlights off they turn off but don't go down. I have brakelights and a dome light. I've check all the fuses and the headlight switch too. What relays should I check or where should I check for any fried wires. Any other advice is apporeciated.
Thank you
Josh

deadbird

All your park lamps are powered by the "TAIL" (20-25A ?) fuse, your gauges, even though having thier own fuse, are initially powered from the park lamps, powered off the "TAIL" fuse/circuit.
If the fuse is good, then the headlight switch might be fried.

89BlackBirdKid

I checked that headlight switch. i put a freshnew one in and it still didnt work.

deadbird

Do you have a voltmeter ? If your switch is good, the fuse is good and still no lights, the only other thing that could be wrong is a cut/burnt/broken wire going from the 'tail' fuse to the headlight switch. All lights tied into the headlight switch and your ACC circuit are all powered from the same fusible link at the starter so, if your dome light is working (ACC circuit) and your headlamps work (direct power from starter to the switch), you know at least power is at least making it to the fuse panel from the starter and that the fusible link is still good. The rest is a matter of hunting & testing wires for voltage.

84Z28_5.7ltr_V8

hahaha. First of all NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER use the lighter power wire for your power on a cd player EVER!!!!! If it melts your car is TOAST! That wire is sooooo small it could melt and cause a fire. It happened to me but i didnt use the lighter. I had a really small wire and the plastic melted and got really hot and it caused a fire.

result?


burnt carpet, holes all over the seats, and a really bad bad BAAAD smell in teh car. also dont use a small wire for your ground either, depending on what watt the deck is or amp or whatever. Just thought i would let you know.

and if anyone is going to say "dont believe him hes stupid' or something, just dont listen, cause it happend to me.

deadbird

Believe it or not, the headlights (high, low, markers) use the same gauge wiring as the lighter. More times than not, meltdowns are the cause of using a higher rated amp fuse as a band-aid to a fuse blowing problem.
There isn't much (as compared to total wiring) in these cars that uses heavy gauge wiring. The dual fans (that suck an *ssload of power when both running), both use the same 'wimpy', single 10-12ga wire from the battery. I'm not saying don't listen to you but, catching wiring on fire is usually an overrated amp fuse problem (I caught my old daytona on fire over the same reason).

84Z28_5.7ltr_V8

mkaes sense i guess.. but i wouldnt risk it. i would run a line directly to the battery. or a thicker wire and splice it on or something.