[allen smith]

I just retested, and with the test light hooked to the positve on the battery and the tester end touching the red wire plug, the test light comes on. It's the only wire on the light switch plug in that lights up.
Not suppose to come on? So possibly a short on the red wire from switch end to fuse box?

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Wish I could see what's going on.
Hook your test light to ground and check the red wire.
Put a fuse back in and check the brown with white stripe wire.
Both of those should check hot with test light grounded.

Headlight power going in and out of the headlight switch is seperate from tail/park light power in and out. Pretty much two switches in one unit.

If tail/park brown wire doesn't turn the test light on when it's hooked to battery (+)....you may have done moved the wire that was shorted out.

That would explain why changing switches fixed it last time. Better check the switch wires right there where your moving them to unplug it.

Let us know what you find.
I'll be checking back in a little later.

[allen smith]

My apologies, I made a mistake with the "fake" Delco battery cover. Actually NOW with the test light connected correctly the only wires on the light switch that ARE NOT hot are the red one and the brown with white stripe. All the rest register hot making the test light come on.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

See what the body ribbon/intermediate harness wires looks like in the trunk. Generally speaking the regular harness wires look and are made different than the body ribbon/intermediate harness wires. Just follow the wires to the connector.

When you find it, it's important to see if the front/dash portion connector has two brown wires in the same terminal. That's where I was talking about having to cut a wire to seperate/isolate the wire from the headlight switch and the wire that goes through the firewall to the front of the car. The two wire terminal may be at the headlight switch plugin/connector.....just not the way my diagram shows it.

You'll need to remove front marker and parking light bulbs to check that part of the harness. May end up having to unplug it from the firewall again. Bulbs in have enough resistance to turn on your test light. Once you get everything seperated, the section that turns on the test light is where the problem is.

It is normal for the other wires to turn on the test light. As long as they're hooked to their respective accessory the wire has a path to ground.

Also need to check the dash light feed wire with the small fuse removed to see if there is a problem with it. It's the green wire by the way.

So you're really just dealing with two possible wires, brown and green, it's just the brown wire splits off a bunch of times.

This shouldn't be hard if you stop and think about it. Just be patient and take your time.

Definitely keep us posted on any progress.

Good luck in isolating and finding it early.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by allen smith

My apologies, I made a mistake with the "fake" Delco battery cover. Actually NOW with the test light connected correctly the only wires on the light switch that ARE NOT hot are the red one and the brown with white stripe. All the rest register hot making the test light come on.

With test light hooked to battery (+) post, hot wires will not turn the light on. So the two wires you speak of are actually HOT instead of NOT.
When you touch a wire with test light hooked to battery (+), and the light comes on....that means that wire has a path to ground. Even if it's through a bulb or accessory.

Just wanted to clear up wording to help cut down on confussion.

[allen smith]

OK, thanks. When I figure out how to unplug the front of the intermediate I'll let you know. Then i can test it by itself. With it unplugged at the rear, but plugged in at the front, I assume it would be difficult to rule out what's going on by probing from the rear?

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by allen smith

With it unplugged at the rear, but plugged in at the front, I assume it would be difficult to rule out what's going on by probing from the rear?

With the front still connected everything up front is still tied together.
Got to get each section of wire isolated to find which one has a problem.
Testing with wires still connected it doesn't matter where you test because everywhere will check bad or show to be shorted out.

Good luck with hopes of a quick fix.

[allen smith]

OK and thanks, I just purchased a small GE multimeter. Going to try and get the intermediate unplugged first...

[allen smith]

FINALLY, I figured out were the intermediate harness unplugs, and it's unplugged on both ends now!
I know to put the multimeter on ohms. I'll record what happens, and anyting I sould look for or be aware of?
Battery connection is not an issue since the harness is "free"
Thanks for your patience and your help is GREATLY appreciated.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by allen smith

and anyting I sould look for or be aware of?

Depends on what you find.

Not finding anything would be my biggest fear.
A short to ground can get opened back up by moving wires around. Then sometimes it's difficult to re-create the problem.

Got my fingers crossed!

[allen smith]

This is what uncovered. I used a traditional multimeter. With the intermediate harness unplugged at both ends, I tested at the rear of it ( at each of the 4 prongs) since it's easy to get to, there are four prongs at the plug in. Several prongs have two wires to each prong.
The green / green paired into one prong tested nothing,
yellow tested nothing,
black tested nothing,
brown / brown tested with continuity. The test needle went across the scale.

[Pepi]

brown/brown with continuity to ground with harness disconnected at both ends = short to ground on one of the brown wires.

Need to follow brown wires and see where rubbing on metal somewhere that rubbed through wire insulation, or wires pinched somewhere grounding out wire.

[allen smith]

Since the wires are disconnected from both ends, it means the short is within the intermediate harness and the problem is one or both brown wires?
So with the intermediate disconnected, if a fuse is placed into the 3rd fuse that's been blowing, it will not blow?



Now I need to review the intermediate harness front to back. At worst, replace the harness

[Pepi]

Originally Posted by allen smith

Since the wires are disconnected from both ends, it means the short is within the intermediate harness and the problem is one or both brown wires?
So with the intermediate disconnected, if a fuse is placed into the 3rd fuse that's been blowing, it will not blow?



Now I need to review the intermediate harness front to back. At worst, replace the harness

Correct, if the intermediate is the culprit, with it disconnected, no fuse should blow.

[allen smith]

Ah ha!
Correct Pepi!
The problem does lie within the intermediate harness, brown wires.
My theory is that when the body man was installing new window fuzzies, he inadvertently stepped on and broke the brown wires. I had the back seat removed, and he was stepping around back there. My harness is a very nice original, as was the car before resto started. It could be worse, much worse, if the dash wiring had been the problem. I'll dig into it this week and let everyone know what I find. Thanks Quick-Silver and Pepi

[allen smith]

I noticed this morning one of the 2 brown wires continued on into and through a hole near "trunk latch area".
Out of curiousity, I unplugged it since it was still part of or tied in with the intermediate harness.
Then I retested with the multi meter on the same place on the intermediate harness that I tested yesterday.
All wires were now testing negative, but when I tested the single brown wire (leading into the hole I spoke about) it tested with continuity.
So since this wire leads to the sending unit on top of the gas tank, I assume my test results mean that is where the short is coming from???
That single brown wire leads into the intermediate harness and does connect with the second brown wire.
I believe the second brown wire provides power to the tail lights?
I kept the multimeter connected while I moved the upper part of the wire around, but no change in the reading on meter. I assume the problem is closer on into the sending unit, provided the brown wire should not show conitinuty? Every other wire / lead is now negative.

[robz]

That wire is more tan in color and is the sending unit wire and IMO should not cause your park light fuse to blow, but should have affected your gas guage reading to be faulty. IIRC Grounding wire should send guage to Empty, and open circuit to Full.

[allen smith]

I need to make a correction.
The gas tank sending unit wire is a TAN wire, and does test with continuity.

I then tested the tan wire on the intermediate harness where the sending unit plugs into, and it registers negative.
At this point I plugged the FRONT intermediate harness in, leaving the rear intermediate unplugged. and then the tan wire on the intermediate registers with continuity.
I turned on the park light and the fuse did not blow.
Right now I have the tail panel light harness unplugged, and the black wire going to the license plate unplugged, which reads with continuity, and the tan (reading with continuity) wire going to the sending unit unplugged.
I guess it's process of elimination.
Im wondering about the sending unit tan wire and the black license plate lamp wire? Any suggestions?
Again, the black, tan, and brown wire tested into at the rear of intermediate harness are with continuity, but the fuse is not blowing. Also, when testing the gas tank sending unit single tan wire harness (leading directly to sending unit) it also tested with continuity. Black wire license lamp harness which leads to lecense lamp test with continuty too. Only thing different I did today was unplug the (black) license lamp and (tan) gas tank sending unit wire

[robz]

OK, Allen, you clarified the wires and harnesses better...my question still is: does your gas guage work fine when everything is plugged in?

[Pepi]

Do you have a bulb in the license plate light. If you have a bulb in, it will show continuity to ground because of the resistance of the filament. I don't have a wiring diagram in front of me right now, but to clarify, the fuse no longer blows when you have the intermediate harness plugged in, and rear unplugged?

I thought you had the intermediate disconnected at both ends from everything and the brown had continuity to ground.