Hi I have an 82z28 all original except radio and the radios works but i was told radio is on that fuse so Idk why that would be working unless they wired it into its own thing . Fuse is blowing everytime I put it in. I am going home to remove cigarette lighter to see if that's the problem. Can i grt to it by removing top dashpad frI'm the top?Anybody know how I can trace wires from fuse block to see which one is faulted I can't even do a test light because I can't get a fuse in it and I want to wire up my 4th Gen power driver seat off of that. Thanks all advice needed.

 

The best thing you could do to fix this would be to remove the radio, shift plate and under dash(drivers side) trim and trace the wires. My car's wiring harness was hacked up, and I just looked for, and removed everything that was not factory. Plus I did alot of wire replacing if the wire was to hacked up. Good luck finding/fixing the problem.

 

check your dome light i've seen more than not the dome light blows fuse usually internal solder melts and causes a short or just gets burnt check before dash removal

 

You can use a multi-meter set to ohms or the beeper setting, it doesn't require power and in fact needs the power to be off when testing. One lead goes to the wire in question and the other to a good ground. If you did have power, then you could check voltages instead.

You can try unplugging each accessory to see if the short goes away. The dome light sounds like a good place to start.

 

Power seats won't work off of that circuit; nowhere near enough power available. All that will happen is, the fuse will blow the first time you try to move the seat.

Correct place to wire them, is the terminal block against the left windshield cowl, right above and behind the hood release thing; which is where the factory wires them to.

Someone in the past doing stuff to that car like you're proposing to do is probably why the fuse is blowing in the first place.

At this point though, all you can do, is find the short. It's not an easy thing to do; no magic bullet for that. Gotta just examine all the parts it powers, all the places it goes, all the wires that carry it, etc.

What you'll find is, a relatively large wire leaving the fuse box and disappearing into the dash harness; a crimped & soldered splice, covered with tape and spooge, that forms a junction that splits with a bunch of smaller wires; then each of those goes to its destination. The wire in that circuit is orange which makes it easy to spot. It powers the dome light, the "courtesy lights" under the dash at both ends, the clock and station memory part of the radio, the cigarette lighter, and maybe the light at the rear of the cargo area (can't remember for sure but I think so).

Leave the fuse out; take your DMM and put it on volts, and find which of the 2 fuse blades is hot by sliding a male slide terminal into each blade slot and measuring the voltage; leave the terminal in the one that's not hot (that's the side connected to the load) and put your DMM on ohms; it should show 0 ohms from that point to ground. Remove the light bulbs from all 3 sockets. (dome light and both floor lights) Then as suggested, start by unplugging it from each thing it plugs into (the 3 lights, the radio harness, the cig ltr) and see if the short goes away.

Examine all the wiring closely. If you find ANYTHING hacked into the orange wire circuit, disconnect it because obviously that could be the problem but we out here have no way of guessing what some PO has done to the car to tell you what that could be or where to look. The most obvious candidates for hack jobs would probably be the radio, an alarm system, or a remote starter.

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT cut any factory wires!!!! If you find any that are already cut and/or spliced, connect them back LIKE ORIGINAL neatly and properly, and insulate them well so they don't create more shorts on down the road someday.

 

It was the cig lighter

 

Give the details. Where did you find the broken wire? This might help someone else at some point.