deadfriendbass

allrigth.. you may have read that my power windows fuse blew.. and there is a short some where.. now my interior light is goin on and off whenever it seems fit.
i look at the fuse box and see a lot of wires bein tapped off of fuses... is this normal??

also i see a small box maybe 3 inches by 3 inches that is tapped off of fuses.. looks like a small chip... dont know what that is.. is that normal???

PLEASE help and if anyone has any good ideas on trouble shooting these electircal problems..

also.. what is the "auxiliary fan"? it was a 30 amp fuse that i "borrowed" to test the power window fuse.. i havent drivin car since that one is gone.. but just wondering what it is.
thanks all

BB wowbagger

Cant really help you,but TTT :cheers:

Crash80

What year Vette are we talking here? That might help some of the gents. on the forum steer you in the right direction with what you see at the fuse box. I am an electrical idiot, so I will be of no help but I am sure someone will come along shortly with some suggestions. Best of luck!

CVT4ME :cheers:

Boofers

Not trying to scare you but if you suspect a short somewhere it is a good idea to carry a fire extinguisher wth you. A few months ago some guy posted that his electrical problems caused a fire to start behind his dash.

Just to clarify, a short is a power carrying wire touches ground in a spot it isn't suppossed to. The easiest way to go about finding a short is to just physically look at the wires, follow them from the fuse panel all the way to their ends. If you see any signs of rubbing or damage to the insulation of the wires you should either replace that portion of the wire or tape up the damaged areas really well AND ensure that the wires are held in such a way that they wont rub anymore. Also look at any of the components your wires connect to - switches, motors, panels, etc - for any signs of damage.

The short may not be obvious so here is a general way to go about finding shorts with your multimeter. A basic multimeter will measure voltage, resistance and maybe even current. If you have electrical problems you really should have one of these, they are a valueable tool.

You should do this with the car off. Pull the power window fuse that keeps blowing. Set the meter to read resistance. Connect one lead of your multimeter to chassis ground. Connect the other lead to where you would plug in the fuse - you have two choices here - one side of the fuse will be 12V (probably only when the car is on) and the other side goes off to the power window circuit. Connect to the power window side of the fuse panel. I'm not 100% positive here cause I dont have the schematics but you probably won't measure any resistance because that line most likely runs to the power window switches which are open unless you push them. Now push the window switches and the resistance should drop.

Now start wiggling wires and see if you can make the resistance go down just from the wiggling. If you find the resistance drops in a particular spot you may have found your short. Replace the bad part of the wire, or the whole wire, whatever just get that bad part out of there. Good luck!

Enad

If 81 is the same as 82 the Aux. fan is your electric engine cooling fan.

If the box at the fuse panel you see is a black box on the right hand side it is the ignition key/seat belt warning buzzer box.

I'm not mistaken the 82 fuse box has five taps on the face. Three are OEM and the other two for my toys.

Dane

A C

Make sure you remove every wire tapped off a fuse. That is the totally wrong way to get power for things in your car. If it's tapped to the incoming side of the fuse, then the fuse will not even blow if you are overamping or shorted and I guarantee you will at least melt some stuff if not have a full blown fire. If the wiring is really in bad shape, then I would recommend a new factory replacement harness (comes with a new fuse block) from either Lectric Limited or M&H Fabricators. It's worth the money vs. fire hazards and chasing multiple electrical problems.

deadfriendbass

if i remove all the factory taps on the fuse box... will i loose anything???

-brian

Enad

I think there might be a some confusion here. When I say taps I am talking about the extra outlets built into the fuse box. These are used by the factory and myself for power source. I think AC is talking about tapping off the side of a fuse.

To answer your question, yes you will lose something if you remove the factory taps. They didn't put them on there just for fun. I can't remember all of what comes off of my box but one that comes to mind is the ignition key reminder buzzer. I can look at mine tonight if you need more info.
Dane

Enad

Brian,

Without breaking too much of a sweat given the fuse box location here's what's on the 82 (your mileage may vary):

Electric mirrors = Brown and white in the ACC tap
Electric Seat = Orange and black in the DEF tap
Electric Windows = Large pink wire just above the AC fuse and below the ACC breaker.
Buzzer Box = Gray in the LPS tap
Unknown Device = Small pink wire in IGN tap on left side next to electric fan

I did not test each circuit but I think these are correct.

Dane