Electrical short

Ok so I have a 90 XJ and for some reason I can not keep a fuse in the gauges slot for longer than 10 seconds. The problem with this is that it connects the tail lights and the gauge lights so I can't drive at night. I have tried disconnecting the tailight wire harness to see if that was the problem I also tried leaving the tail light harness in and just removing the bulbs from to see if that was the problem, I still get the same results. My speedo doesn't work but I think that is from snaping the speedo cable when my t-case blew up. I don't have a stereo in at all and have just the wires hanging out of the dash. I have tried to look back around those wires and can not see anything that would cause this bad of a short. Does anyone have any Ideas what else I could check or do.

I have a simular problem, lets see what they say.....


90 XJ

Thanks

Pugsley

Try disconnecting the front parking lights and marker ligts. My guess is it's a short in one of the bulb sockets, but also take a look at the wiring, especially where it routes close to sharp body metal.

I assume the fuse blows when you pull out the light switch one click....? If so, that eliminates the headlights as the cause of the short.

It could also be a faulty light switch itself........

Runnin'OnEmpty said:

Try disconnecting the front parking lights and marker ligts. My guess is it's a short in one of the bulb sockets, but also take a look at the wiring, especially where it routes close to sharp body metal.

I assume the fuse blows when you pull out the light switch one click....? If so, that eliminates the headlights as the cause of the short.

It could also be a faulty light switch itself........

Click to expand...

Ok so I played with this some more, You are correct the fuse blows right on the first click of the light switch.
I have not checked the front marker lights or parking lights. Since this fuse controls the tail lights the horn and the gauges I am worried it could be a bigger problem than I could find or fix. I will keep trying though.