dash lights not working?

[shawn hall]

My tail light died on me and also the dash lights...I replaced the fuse for the taillights and the dash lights were on for a min or two then shut back off? Any ### to bypass?

Anyone?

 

[gofer]

you cant bypass a fuse, its there for a reason... if a wire shorts to the chassis it pops the fuse rather than arcing and starting a fire.
remove all 6 tail light bulbs, both side marker bulbs, both headlight blinker bulbs, and your radio as well since some of the wiring back there could be pinched behind it. to test it buy (or check one out from autozone) a DMM (digital multimeter) and set it to read DC Amps (DCA) then put the ground to the battery and the positive lead where the fuse would be and flip the headlight switch. check your DMM for a 15A reading, if it is 15A then start putting the bulbs back one at a time and checking the DMM. you'll find the culprit, odds are its a bulb internally shorted.
if you've removed all the bulbs and its still reading shorted on the DMM use this... http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-electrical-wiring/179481-finding-short-partial-short-battery-drain.html

if you do all of the above and its still blowing fuses then post up here again what you found and ill try to help you further. good luck.