Just got my Firebird back, and none of my gauges (or my radio) work. Gauge fuse blows instantly. Put a piece of wire in real quick, and my temp gauge maxed out. But none of the others even moved. Disconnected the gauge cluster and short still occurs, so the gauge its self is good. Disconnected the plug on the temp sensor, and it still shorts. So it isn't the sensor. I am stumped. Put the wire back in so i could see what wires going to the gauge cluster has power. None of them have power other than the wire wire at the bottom left of the bottom connector.

My Chilton book apparently doesn't have a wiring diagram for the gauge cluster for my year. Anybody know what that white wire is for? Is this a common issue?

 

Your tragically flawed troubleshooting "technique" has now caused further damage beyond the original short circuit .

Have you never heard of the abject stupidity of "putting a penny in the fusebox" of old house wiring , and then the house burns down ?

Stop with the "penny in the fusebox" nonsense and get with someone who knows car wiring . A mistake like you just made could very well have been your car's demise , wiring fires being a very common way cars are destroyed , and it's usually because someone jumped out a safety device .

 

I had a similar issue (blowing fuses and whatnot) related to the lighting in the cluster and turned out to be in my radio wiring that was done previously for an aftermarket radio...

not sure if it could be related but thought I'd throw it out there since you said the radio isn't working either

 

10 seconds of 15 amps isn't enough to destroy a car. I know not to replace fuses with higher than recommended. But trouble shooting at 10 seconds at a time is a bit different.



I'll have to look into that too. Radio wasn't working when i first got the car, but the gauges worked fine. Cluster lighting was iffy though... Cluster lights and radio were working when i started it up this spring

 

Ok , so , not looking to argue here , but , if you put a straight wire in place of a 15 Amp fuse , that circuit is gonna draw WAY more than 15 Amps ! Ten seconds of a dead short is most certainly enough to start a wire fire in the dashboard .

Now , the suggestion of checking the radio was a great one , and failing that , you can find complete schematic diagrams for your car at www.austinthirdgen.org

What the general idea would be would to replace the fuse with a 12V light , like an #1156 reverse light bulb in a socket . Turn on the key , the bulb will be lighting brightly . One by each , disconnect the things fed power from that circuit . When you disconnect a device that causes the bulb to go very dim or out completely , you have found your shorted item .

Problem here now being , 10 seconds of a dead short has likely opened the circuit elsewhere by melting a connector or other wire junction . If so , the above troubleshooting technique won't work and different methods will need to be used .