Hey guys. I am new to this forum and new to third gens. I have an 85 Z28. I bought it knowing the radiator fan was wired to a ground and doesn't spin, but encountered a new issue today. I tried to jump the car since the battery died from cold temps(this has been working fine for the past few weeks), and the car would try to start, would rev if I stepped on the gas, but not run. No clue what the problem is. The gauge cluster fuse blows every time I turn on axillary power. Previous owner put in a 25A in, and when I put a 25A in, the car started, ran, and almost immediately died when I put it in reverse, also blowing that fuse. Any ideas? I have no clue what I'm doing or where to start.

 

The "gages" fuse powers the whole pink/blk circuit under the hood. All the solenoids etc. Goes about 3 dozen places. Likely there's a short on some one of those wires or devices.

Don't use a fuse that large. You're liable to start an electrical fire, which even if it doesn't burn the car to the ground, will make a mess so yyyyyuuuuuuujjjjjjje, that whatever electric problems you have now, will look like child's play.

 

How would I go about checking that?

 

This statement alone says it all!

How can we help if you are "clueless" about your thirdgen? How "clueless" are you? Do you even know how basic automotive electrical works? What's the engine in it? LG4? L69? What transmission? Do you know how to read basic wiring diagrams? Do you have basic automotive tools? Fixing gremlins like your issue can be a real pain... specially if you are "clueless" and don't know where to start. How are we supposed to know ourselves? Can you even understand the terms that will be thrown at you?

Here's my advice. Find someone local that has some basic knowledge of cars and is willing to give you a hand. Google, YouTube and TGO searches will reveal a world of knowledge so you can be a bit less helpless. That is if you are willing to read and learn.

Peace

 

Great place to start would be, find EVERY pink/blk wire under the hood, and LOOK AT them. Specifically, look for copper showing through the insulation; and/or if you disconnect something that's hooked up by a wire that color that looks sketch (or not), does it stop the CORRECTLY SIZED fuse from blowing. Yeah, might take a whole bucketful of fuses, butt I'm thinking (I use the word VERY loosely) that that's better than burning your car to the ground.

Pretty technical I know; butt ya gotta start somewhere. Me, I'm incredibly stuuuupid. I'm so stuuuuuuuupid, I'm immune to the brain-eating amoeba, because if it accidentally screwed up and wandered inside my skull, it would just ... starve. You on the other hand, since you're [forrestgump] smart [/forrestgump] enough to post a question on the Internet, are WWWWWWWAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY smarter than I'll ever be. So I'm projecting that if I can figure it out, so can you.