Hi,

Is there anything common that might keep the #8 15A fuse blowing in my '95? This fuse controls the speedometer, interior lights, cargo lights, and radio. Would having the wrong bulbs (larger draw) in the door courtesy lights cause this? I have now replaced this fuse 3 times in the past 2 weeks.

Any ideas are welcomed!

 

Do you have the stock radio? A bad ground behind the radio could cause it. I had an 86 mustang and when I removed and reinstalled the wing, the liscense plate light ground wire got pinched, and that caused the turn signals, brake lights, dash lights, and liscense plate lights to fail.

 

Yes it does have the stock radio in it, and AM/FM/Cassette radio. So I could just look behind the radio, and see if the ground wire is crimped/damaged? Is the ground wire white, or what color, most likely?

Thanks!

 

OK, no offense, but its a ground wire. Try black. If you are unsure of the color of a ground wire, are you sure you can locate a crimped or damaged wire? I don't mean any offense, but I'd hate to hear that you got back there and got injured or damaged something else. Have you done any mods to it recently?

 

Just for my own edification, how much more draw on the door bulbs. You might be tearing through the wiring when you knew the problem all along.

 

No offense taken! If I know it's black then I will look for a damaged black wire coming from the radio, when I do go to look for it. And yes I can tell if the sheath ona wire is cut or worn so that the wire is exposed. No, I haven't done any mods to it. I've only had it for about 9 months, and this problem just started. Funny, it only happens when my stepson drives it, and this fuse controls the speedo.

As far as the courtesy bulb goes, I will have to check the manual to see what the draw is for the OEM, and then look at the bulb again.

Thanks for the response guys!

 

Actually, there are three ground wires in the factory harness, and while one IS black, two of them are black with a green stripe...so you might want to lose the superior tone of voice when you're giving misleading information.

Generally speaking, it is far more common for a door pinswitch to go bad and cause a grounding problem to blow the fuse than a wire on a stationary radio to somehow get moved and all of a sudden get pinched. You might also chech the back of the cargo light fixture for corrosion from a water leak around the wires. Either of these two are much more likely than the radio ground...

 

Thanks for the added information. Now that you mention the cargo light, I did have a little trouble with that when I first got the truck. I had a hard time finding the correct bulb for it, and it was really hard to open because of corrosion. Matter of fact, light now "bleeds" into the cab through the dome light from the cargo light - not much, but you can tell it's there. So I will check those 2 items also.

Thanks guys!
John

 

Speaking of overdrawing from the source, everytime my buddy plugs his phone charger or anything that draws from the cig. lighter, a fuse blows. It's really quite annoying, it happens as soon as he turns the truck on, so my question. Can you just run a ground wire to the back of the cig light slot and ground that to the frame.