Posted By: wingedwarrior
blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satellite - 01/10/11 05:25 PM
I recently bought a 1970 Satellite that is in very good original condition. It looks to not have ever been modified or messed with. However It will not take a fuse in the Stop lamp/dome light holder in the fuse box. It pops it as soon as you try to put it in. I checked all of the taillights and made sure the bulbs were in correctly. I also checked the dome light area to make sure there was no bare wires anywhere. Dome light bulb is missing. Any common problem that this might be? Thanks in advance.
Posted By: Mopar_Country
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satellite - 01/10/11 05:29 PM
Check your grounds by the tail lights. If it's popping as soon as you put it in I would think something is grounding that shouldn't be.
Posted By: Shoozy
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satellite - 01/10/11 05:32 PM
Pull your dome light down and check for a dead short grounding out.
Posted By: repad
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satellite - 01/10/11 05:56 PM
You have a short somewhere in that circut, get yourself a wiring diagram and follow the wires in that circut with a tester until you find it.
Posted By: stumpy
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satellite - 01/10/11 06:08 PM
To test for a brake light short unplug the turn signal switch.
Posted By: ProStDodge
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satellite - 01/10/11 08:03 PM
I will agree with Yancy. If you pull the driver side kick panel, there are connections for the harness to the dome light. Disconnecting this harness will help you determine where the short is that you are trying to find.
Posted By: wingedwarrior
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satellite - 01/10/11 09:07 PM
Have been working on the problem today. I disconnected the rear harness..no help. Disconnected the stop light switch..no help. I then took the fuse panel out. I removed the terminal tree that held all of the extra lights ie; trunk light, dome light(pink wires) etc... did not help. I am now down to the black wire and the large red wire that supplies power. I am assuming the short might be in the black wire but it does not light up with tester. I have not disconnected the turn signal switch wiring harness yet. I am going to drop the column a little and do this next. I appreciate all of the help thus far.
Posted By: stumpy
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satellite - 01/10/11 09:50 PM
You could save yourself a lot of time a wasted work if you used a wiring diagram to trace your problem because you are already way beyond where you should be looking. Here is a link to some diagrams.
http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=18
Posted By: John_Kunkel
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satellite - 01/10/11 10:16 PM
Check the bulb in the dome light to be sure somebody hasn't installed a single contact bulb.
Posted By: Mopar_Country
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satellite - 01/11/11 01:28 AM
Good catch Stumpy, maybe the contacts are grounding within the socket without the bulb in there if they slipped out of the little plate in there.
Posted By: sooner440
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satelli - 01/17/11 07:48 AM
I am having the SAME exact problem with my '69 Satellite. Have you found anything yet? Kinda can't drive it without brake lights
.
Posted By: SkynyrdTim
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satelli - 01/19/11 04:29 AM
Any holes in your headliner? I had a dome light problem once and it was caused by a bare wire leading to the dome light. Some rotten mouse had chewed a hole in my headliner and munched on the dome light wire casing. On my 72 RR, I think the pink wire powers the dome light, glove box light and cigarette lighter. I would start at the dome light wire and work back to the cigarette lighter.
Posted By: sooner440
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satelli - 01/19/11 06:16 AM
Ok, there is a hole in the headliner and there was a dead mouse in the car when I bought it. I'll start with removing the dome light bulb and see what the fuse does when I put it in. According to the factory wiring diagram this fuse also goes to the hazard flashers, glove box light, map light, clock, and trunk light. Guess I can narrow this down to which one is the problem one at a time by removing the bulb or unplugging the plug to each one and see what the fuse does. Can it be this simple?
Posted By: SkynyrdTim
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satelli - 01/19/11 07:04 PM
I'm sticking with the dome light wire. The pink wire is probably bare somewhere between the dome light and the glove box. It's shorting out because it's touching metal or the other wire that leads to the dome light. The yellow wire might have been chewed as well.
I solved this problem by ripping out the old headliner. I fixed the damaged wire and put in a new headliner. I'm sure you don't want to do that, but it may be hard to find the bare spot on the wire without taking the old headliner down. You could cut the wires going to the dome light and see if that works. Not recommended, but it might work and not having a dome light isn't the end of the world. Good luck.
Posted By: 1_WILD_RT
Re: blowing brake and dome light fuse in a 1970 Satelli - 01/19/11 07:35 PM
You can eliminate the dome lamp wires by unplugging the 2 pin connector over the left wheel house accessed through the trunk.... White connector, yellow & pink wires...
