Daehawk

haha.."ya found a few things wrong and fixed them all...what were they?...oh dont worry about..nothing huge"

Just out of curiosity Im guessing when the switch is turned to on the fuel pump comes on? That way ya know the switch is ok.

mrwitty_1

Yes 2.6 located under the dash in passenger compartment.

SteveL

Yep, I am an idiot. I never thought there would be another fuse under the dash for the starter, should have read a little more. I guess I got practice at pulling the starter off of this thing. The fuse was blown, so I got a new box of fuses. After work tonight I will wrestle the starter back in and see what happens.
I am a little concerned about the fuse though, why did it blow? It has been my experience that fuses don't just blow for no reason. I am now worried about a short somewhere that is causing it. When she bought the car we found out the high beams do not work. When she switches to high beam she loses headlights and the dash indicator does not come on. Even when she pulls the lever back to the flash to pass position there is nothing and the dash indicator does not come on. I was originally thinking the multi switch was probably bad, but now I am wondering if there is a short in the column.

mrwitty_1

Glad you found the problem but like you said something caused it to open. I wouldn't worry to much about a shorted wire in the harness. As there are only two circuits protected by this fuse makes it somewhat easier. Is the stereo factory or after market install ? If it is an install I would look there first. I have seen some very poor installs, if it is factory I would replace the starter relay it may have a internal short. Keep us updated.

SteveL

It has the factory stereo.
Replaced the fuse and it works.
I am still concerned with why it blew out. It was a wet rainy day, possibly some water leaking somewhere, but I have not seen any sign of water intrusion or corrosion from water.
I will see how long it lasts with the new fuse.

SteveL

Now I need to figure out why the headlights do not work on high beam. Switch to high beam and the headlights go out. The indicator on the dash does not come on. Pull back to flash to pass position and the headlights go out. Low beams work fine. I am thinking multi switch, but this does make me wonder is there any place in the system where there could be a short causing both problems?
Also, how hard is it to change the multi switch? The last one I changed was on a 1988 Mustang GT. I am assuming they are close to the same.

SteveL

OK, I hope I am done with these issues for a while.
Tonight I went out to look at her high beam problem. I discovered the fuse for the high beams was missing. I am wondering if someone blew the starter fuse and replaced it with the high beam fuse? But as soon as I put a fuse in the slot, the high beams worked. I left them on for 10 minutes or so and watched close. No smoke, no blown fuse, no flickering lights. I discovered her battery is probably very weak, after about 3 minutes of the headlights on and engine off, the lights dimmed and turned to a yellow glow. As soon as I put my charger on the lights came back to full strength. Going to have to load test the battery next time I get a chance. So for now she is back on the road.
You suggested that maybe the relay is shorting out and causing the fuse to blow. Your talking about the relay in the power distribution box under the hood right? If she blows another fuse I am going to replace that relay to see if that solves the problem.
For now, I showed her how to change the fuse and left 4 new fuses in the car. I also attached a long lead wire to the exciter wire on the solenoid at the starter. I coiled this up and tucked it in the engine bay, so if all else fails I have an easy lead to get to for a test or I can touch that directly to the battery pos to override the starter switch. But I wont show her that, it is a little dangerous starting that way. My old 1970 Mustang had to be started that way, so I put a push button under the dash. Worked great as long as I remembered to take it out of gear first!
Thanks a bunch for all of the help tracing these problems down!

Daehawk

Dont do this but I had a fuse that kept blowing on me so I wrapped it in aluminum foil and stuck it back in. Never had another problem. Of course I was a stupid 16 year old kid and should never have done that LOLz.

SteveL

I have done that often, especially with the old round glass fuses. Gum wrappers worked great as a quick fix for a blown fuse, just like putting a penny in the old house fuse boxes.
The old saying was the house burned down and they lost everything but the penny in the fuse box!

Daehawk

Yup that was the fuses and yep used gum foil too.

Not a fuse issue but I recall my addon fog lights quit one day So I decided to fix them. Once I thought I had them right I flipped the switch. The wires all went insta red, melted the insulation, and popped the fuse. Never worked again haha.