Blowing fuse

I decided to check and see why my horn wasn't working (while I had the front of the car apart) and found the fuse was blown. Went to put a new one in and it popped right away. It's the third one in from the passenger side and as far as I can tell controls the horn, cig lighter, emergency light socket, plate lights and key buzzer?

That's a pretty widely scattered bunch of stuff to start tracing down wires. Is there a way I can tell which one has the short from the plugs at the fuse panel.

Sorry if this is an elementary question but me and electricity haven't always seen eye to eye. I do have a multi meter and know the basics of how to use it.

Thanks,
John

 

Thanks for the replies gents. I'll try all the suggestions. I should mention that the horn compressor was already disconnected because I had it out. Since I was under the front of the car I pulled it to clean it up anyway. I hooked it up to a 12v source and it works just fine. There's nothing in the lighter Bill so I guess I'll have to start trying each plug to see which one it is.

As far as the plate lights being on another circuit they may be, I was just going off the fuse list in the owner's manual.

I hate electrical problems but at least this circuit doesn't power anything too critical!

 

No, I've been busy pulling the radiator after apparently poking a hole in it while trying to mount new fans. Once I get that back together I'll get going on the belts and tensioners. If I have time in between I'll try to track down the wiring.

Isn't this weather crazy? I don't remember it ever snowing this late or this many times in one year. I thought it was supposed to be spring now??

 

Just a quick update to this thread. On a side note, I did get the radiator out and to the shop and it looks like it's re-core time (but I didn't poke a hole in it, it's just shot). Woo-hoo.

I pulled the connectors from the panel and I do get an ohm to ground reading on one. The only connectors to that fuse on my car are cig lighter (yell/grn stripe) and lamp socket (red) on one plug and seat belt buzzer (white/red stripe) and horn relay (white) on the other (but the plate lights are also listed in the OM as on that circuit??)

The reading showed on the lamp socket/cig lighter so now I just have to figure out which one it is and find the short. It still wanted to blow the fuse even with the lighter unplugged though so I think I can rule that out. For now I can just leave this plug off and find the short some time down the road. I don't use the lighter or the lamp plug.

The odd part is that the horn still doesn't work even with a good fuse and the other plug left off.

I hooked the horn compressor up to a source and it ran just fine. I also checked the horn button and it seems to work just fine. I also switched the relay out with another one but it still didn't work. The relay isn't clicking at all when I push the button.

Did I say I don't like electrical problems yet?


Thanks again guys for the help.

 

I hate to post this update but the short is fixed. I had the car at a freinds house so he could so some work on it. He traced it out and it turns out when I put the interior back together I plugged the emergency light socket in wrong so it was grounding to itself causing the short.

We were also able to trace the horn not working down to the last wire between the plug and the column. Niether of us had the socket to remove the column nut though so that will be fixed later on. At least I know where it's at. Could be a short in the wire or a problem with the slip ring/clock spring or whatever you call it.

He also figured out the problem with the tach, totally unrelated to this thread but...apparently as I was putting the interior back together (anyone else see a theme here?) when I plugged the tach back in one of the wires pushed out of the back of the plug. He re-seated that wire and put the dash back together voila the tach now works.

Thanks again Dave!!