Even the map light blows the fuse!

[HANDM]

I have been trying to put 12 volts to the charger without any success, well a little, just not much

Every time I try a fuse in the "dome" slot ,the bulb lights for a few and then snap, goes the fuse.
Head lights and buzzer for a few, then snap goes the fuse

All the others are still "good" for now but I suspect they too will snap when power gets applied.

Is there any major spots I should look for?

Here is a thread I started about cheap chinese wire from Oreilly

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,79119.0.html

Could that be the problem?

[resq302]

Almost sounds like you have a direct short somewhere.

[tan top]

Almost sounds like you have a direct short somewhere.

   has the dome light wiring ever been removed  from the car ??  

[nascarxx29]

Maybe try removing the dome light bulb and see what happens.Is bulb the double ended contact type.
The pink or yellow wires maybe be shorting out.The dome light wires run from light under headlinder and down to kick panel behind E brake.Have you tried a alt power source and put power in on one end where the fuse goes.
If you can inject power to yellow wire fuse end and no problem.And it sparks on the pink end of fuse a direct short on the power source.You can do the 12 volt testlight across the battery terminals or the fuse where it blows.
To track it down.
But doors switches etc need to be closed and off.To get a accurate test
Move wires unplugg and check testlight .If light goes out your good .If it flickers but stays on problem persists
Hope this helps. Ive repaired mopar wiring and chased the electrical gremlins for years

[HANDM]

Thanks for the replies, this one has got me stumped, I too have successfully chased down gremlins on this car and my E's, but jeez.........this one 

Ther is no dome bulb in at the moment, just the map light under the dash, the console lights were working as well, but they quit after a full 12 volts were applied........

I'll check around some more and keep y'all posted

[resq302]

Try and back think.... Did you put any new screws in anywhere?  Did you drill any new holes?  What did you do prior to this short happening?

[A383Wing]

try unplugging the cig lighter

[HANDM]

No new holes or screws,

Before I put the gauges and interior in, I started and ran the car with the ammeter wires hooked together with no trouble, after putting the dash together I left the ammeter wires taped...... Thinking that was the problem, I hooked them up with no effect.

I am really thinking that the cheap oreilly wire I used to replace the bulkhead connections for the big ten gauge black and red wires is the real problem

I'm not looking forward to ripping it out, but it seems that may be the only alternative

[resq302]

Hmmm, does it do it with the engine running or key in the on position?  Hook up the dome light bulb and with the key out and battery hooked up, see if the dome light and console lights work with the door just open.  That might eliminate a short in that circut?

[HANDM]

So far I have...

Yanked the cluster to eliminate any trouble there
Removed the map light from it's connections
Disconnected the high/ low beam switch
Found brake switch connections were backwards


Hooked the ammeter wires together and now am able to crank the engine (haven't started it yet, no gas tank)
Turn signals now work (if they didn't already)
Brake warning light comes on with key on

Still popping the fuse with door switch



Next I will disconnect the dome and console light harness and lastly the door switches themselves although they are my "test" for popping the fuse......

Keep in mind that I've had the harness out, gone over the whole thing, cleaned and repaired the cuts and splices and re-installed using the factory service manual with no difficulty except for this, of course.

 

Thanks Guys! 

[tan top]

have you unpluged the dome lamp wiring from the connection down where lower door hinge bolts , try that !! 

[HANDM]

That's next on my list.....
Figured I'll leave it for a few and just mow the lawn instead.....So much less frustrating

[A383Wing]

try unplugging the cig lighter

done this yet?

dome fuse is hot all the time..as is lighter, brake lights....

[nascarxx29]

Also if you have the optional trunk light its power feed is off the dome light circuit.Its a black wire

[HANDM]

Cig lighter unhooked....
I am going to unplug the dome/ console harness and check the trunk light wire as well......
Im down to my last fuse, wish me luck 
I'l post back any results, if any.

[HANDM]

No luck with disconections,  blew the last fuse 
At this point everything relating to the interior lighting has been disconected, so it seems that there is something up with the initial power going into the harness......

[A383Wing]

what color wire is connected to the door jam switches? Should be yellow...not the pink ones

[Brock Lee]

I had a problem like this and it was in my map light. I must have twisted the new bulb in hard and rotated the socket so one of the legs on the back was touching the dash frame and shorting out.

[HANDM]

Figured out that the console wiring harness is whats causing that fuse to blow, yanked it out, dome and map light no longer blow that fuse.

Now I have the headlights blowing their fuse, removed the buzzer no luck, disconnected the main headlight harness, no luck....

Thinking that mayhap the switch?

[A383Wing]

headlights are not on a fuse in the fuse block....they have a circuit breaker inside the switch

[HANDM]

It's the tail lamp fuse that keeps blowing, I see that the wire L8-18P runs up to the headlight switch and the other to the lighter (unhooked)......   

The taillight harness is new and the brake lights and turn signals work.......

Is this sounding like the switch, the harness, a ground issue or all three?

Thanks for the help guys 

[nascarxx29]

  A ground issue wouldnt blow the fuse.And if brake and turn signals work properly.Cant see the turn signal switch being bad .As when turn signal switch acts up you lose all brake lights.Or you only get one side

[FJMG]

One member touched on this above and here is another story to back that post up. My brothers 74 dodge p/u was driving him crazy when he put it back together after paint. I was out of town and advised him to disconnect at main connects and energize circuits direct from a battery to try to isolate problems and he still could not get it to work. When I got back in town there were wires everywhere. Long story short, someone inadvertently inserted an 1156 into the 1157 slot in one new taillight that he bought, this in turn energizes just about everything else in the fuseblock from the wrong side of the fuse. So make sure EVERY single bulb in your car is correct.

[HANDM]

Hmmm....good idea, I bought the e-bay bulb kit and mayhap have an issue there......I'll go check it out 

[BananaDan]

I bought the eBay bulb kit also and it has a lot of errors.  I luckily have my old harnesses with the old bulbs so I compared each one before I installed them.  Those interior screw kits also have errors.

Dan

[HANDM]

I just checked the bulbs, I have 1157's in front (amber) and four in back on the out board sockets. Then I had 2 1156's in the inboard sockets (figured one wire, 1156 right?)

Removed the 1156's left the sockets dangling installed new fuse, hit the switch and *poof* goes the fuse.

According to the service manual, there a total of 6 1157's when clearly there are 8 sockets with no indication of what bulb goes into the inboard single wire sockets.....

I'm ramblin a little here so please, bear with me 

.......I am so glad that patience comes with age 

Thanks again 

[HANDM]

I bought the eBay bulb kit also and it has a lot of errors.  I luckily have my old harnesses with the old bulbs so I compared each one before I installed them.  Those interior screw kits also have errors.

Dan

Found that out too.

The most glaring errors were the instrument cluster bulbs, the rear view mirror center screw and the armrest screws.

[nascarxx29]

The charger inner tail light bulb originally was a  #1095.I believe these bulbs were brighter.But no longer available
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,6515.0.html

Re: progress
« Reply #328 on: May 05, 2011, 07:26:14 AM » Quote 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4 days of wiring issues! found my yearone underdash harness was wired wrong from year one!!!!!! damn them!

[A383Wing]

The charger inner tail light bulb originally was a  #1095.I believe these bulbs were brighter.But no longer available

what I did with mine was convert the 2 inner bulb sockets to hold the 1157 twin-filament bulbs so now I have 3 park & 3 brake-turn lights on each side like the 66 & 67 Chargers

[nascarxx29]

Found a place with the orig #1095s    https://www.bulbdirect.com/search/text_search.php?search=1095&Submit.x=28&Submit.y=9.
This on going short reminded me of a 70 Coronet RT.I trouble shooted all original untouched car kept blowing fuse .Checked it over and over and suspected the turn signal switch .And disconnected the column from the harness and tried a another switch.And it worked .Later disassembled the column that never been touched to replace the switch.And found the factory pinched the turn signal wires in the black guide held on with 4 screws on the column

[HANDM]

Just got through checking the bulbs in the tail sockets, they are in fact 1095's.......

I'll check out the column wiring........

[gasoline_24]

I had a similar problem with the wrong bulbs in the front park lights.  I would recheck every bulb first.  The ebay kit is worthless.

[nascarxx29]

I also had problems with the 70 side markers shorting out .But like the steering column pinched wire gremlin .Things were fine sometimes.And next moment acted up .You got to use process of elimination unplug things  lightly move wiring around to see if you get a result

[Cooperman]

...lightly move wiring around to see if you get a result

Ahh, the good old 'wiggle' test! 

[HANDM]

LOL. The ol wiggle test is how I found the console harness was jacked up.....

I'm going to go over the bulbs here pretty quick and continue wiggling and disconnecting and see what I can scare up

[HANDM]

So when I disconnect the rear light harness, the fuse no longer blows with the HL on. With the front harness connected,the running lights work but no headlights

Used jumpers directly from battery to the rear harness and found all wires operate the correct bulbs.......

[nascarxx29]

 Something going on with head light switch or dimmer  
 Do the locations & colors of wires on headlight switch & floor dimmer correspond with the factory shop manual reference.Just wondering if terminals might been removed fell out etc from plastic connector and reinstalled in wrong spot??

[Brock Lee]

In regards to the 1095 bulb:

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,37497.0.html

That inner bulb should not be as bright as the brake lights!

[HANDM]

After having some help today from my electrician friend, we figured out the source of the problem....

It seems that on the left inboard socket (on the NEW harness) one of the contacts was bent, so that the thing was grounding on the facking housing   

Headlights were not working due to the dimmer not being hooked up, again 

It's always something simple, now if I could just start thinking that way 

I'm off for re-re-assembly of the dash

[HANDM]

Wrong bulbs in the console harness, installed the right ones and bingo.....
Thanks guys 

[tan top]

good you got it sorted 

[HANDM]

Amazing how light bulbs can screw with you like that 

[nascarxx29]

Glad you got it .Ive seen the tail light sockets being troublesome .Wouldnt expect it from new ones.The original tail light wiring insulation can wear down and come in contact with the spring and or housing where wires going into the socket