I keep blowing gauge fuses, and my speedo and fuel gauge are past pegged. When I replace the fuse the gauges (except for the fuel, and speedo) work fine until i drive for a little bit (100 yards or so), then the fuse blows again. Has anyone had a similar problem? What was the fix?

Thanks
Patrick

 

You have something going to ground that has 12 volts on it. The first thing to do is find out if it is one of the items powered by the fuse in question. In a 94, there are 3 things powered by the gages fuse (unless you have DRL and traction control then there are 5). The keyless entry module, the DERM and the instrument cluster. You need to unplug those one at a time until you unplug the one that does not blow the fuse. If you are tired of replacing the fuse to diagnose the problem, you could either use a gage in place of the fuse or get a resettable circuit breaker of the same value as the fuse (10Amp) and use it while you trouble shoot the problem.

As an alternative, you can remove the fuse. Check both sets of contacts for the fuse and find the side that does NOT have 12 volts on it. This is the contact that goes to the devices. Measure the resistance from that contact to ground and disconnect each of the 3 devices one at a time until the resistance goes up.

Both the instrument cluster and the DERM are solid state devices and may not have a low resistance until they are powered up however. So the resistance test at the fuse contacts may not work. But if your problem is a wire contacting ground, you will find that as the resistance will stay low even after the devices are disconnected. If that is the case, you will need to start wiggling wires to find the short to the body. Start where the wires pass through the sheet metal if that is the case.

You know where the instrument cluster is. The DERM is located behind the glove box snapped into a bracket. The keyless entry module is right behind the right side kock panel. The wire in question for each of the 3 devices is pink in color.

Since your speedo and fuel gage are pegged, chances are good that the insrument cluster is shot. Start with that and see if that is the cause of the blowing the fuse problem. If so, you may want to find a replacement at a JY since new ones cost an arm and probably 2 legs.

Hope that helps

Dave