Just got my truck back together and drove it for the first time in 6 months. Last night all went fine but today all of the sudden my dash light illumination fuse keeps blowing. I put a new one in earlier and it lasted for 30 seconds then blew. I thought it was my radar detector because it happened when I plugged it in. So I tried another one and it blew instantly. All of my aftermarket guage lights come on with the lights but the dash and climate control lights wont. How can I narrow this down?

 

Are your aftermarket guages tied to the illumination fuse?

You are missng some details. did you recently install the guages? or anything else electrical?

 

Like Doc says are the gauge lites on the dash lite fuse. If the gauges dim with the dimmer then they are. If so my guess is you have a shorted wire to the gauges. If they are in the pillar that's the first place I would look. As an absolute
LAST resort we short across the fuse with a pair of old needle nose pliers and watch for smoke but be prepared to remove the pliers very quickly, this may sound a little primative but it works in a hurry.. Have a Halon fire extinguisher standing by.

 

No nothing aftermarket has been added. The truck has sat for 6 months and only ran once. The aftermarket gauges are not tied into the illumination fuse either. They are tied into marker lights I believe.

 

I have seen cases where a burnt out bulb has shorted out when it burnt out. look for any bulbs that are burnt. I would double check the gauge lites, if they dim with the dimmer they are on the same fuse.

 

I didnt see any burnt out bulbs. I put another fuse in and it stayed on for about 30 secs before it popped.

 

do not use the smoke trick, get yourself a circuit breaker and add it into the fuse location. unplug one unit at a time and see what happens.

 

Now thats an idea...

 

I agree with this one, if you see smoke something bad and you will have more trouble than you already have

 

When I get a circuit breaker what do I start to unplug to narrow it down?

 

Did the truck sit inside or outside for 6 months? If it was outside, look for evidence of mice getting in. I have seen them chew the insulation off wires and make a complete mess of things, causing all kinds of shorts.

 

we do have a mice problem out here. Are all the wires for the dash and such under the dash inside the truck or are they under the hood?

 

I see my smoke method is not popular. I did say "as an absolute LAST resort" though. Anyway there is not much to the circuit, power comes from the headlight sw to the 5 amp fuse in the junction box on the drivers side of the dash from there it goes to connector#5, from there it's fed to the instrument cluster (7 bulbs), heater controls, radio, ash tray, cup holder and heated seat sw if the truck has them. If the truck has an after market radio I would pull it out and have a look there, often radio installers twist the wires together and tape them, in the heat the tape comes off and the wire shorts or the wires get pinched when pushing the deck into the hole. Good luck..

 

absolutly a common prob.
i would unplug the cluster first then go from there