help taillights keep blowing fuses

i put a new wireing harness in my 55 chevy wagon, its all working pretty good but my tailights blow the fuse instantly. anybody got any suggestions i am a total electrical idiot.
thanks
COLE

 

maybe your break pedal switch is bad??? or plugged in backwards

 

Make sure that the taillight housings are not pinching the wiring. If the positive wire is exposed and contacting the body ANYWHERE you will continue to blow fuses. DON'T attempt to byp*** the fuse with tin foil or anything else, you may end up with a fire eventually.

Kael

 

If the brake switch was the culprit, the problem would only occur when applying the brakes.

 

Do your parking lights and or headlights still work?

Kael

 

You have a short, somewhere. Start at the tail lights and work backwards to the fuse block, looking for pinched or cut insulation. Knew a guy, back in olden days, that got tired of blowing fuses, and stuck a piece of 1/4" Copper tubing in the fuse clips. You know the rest; he had to pay to practically rewire the whole car. Ya gotta find the short.

 

headlite r not to be wired to your tail lites they take more juice...

s****e paint away from mounting screws as the tail lites are grounded...

did you add the body ground strap?

turn signals.brake lites ,flashers work?

steering column in place/grounded.... all tail ,turn ,brakelites route through the signal switch ... oh yes they do

cigar lighter pushed in and stuck or its wire loose?

sounds like checking a few circuits is needed eliminate them one by one.. good luck

 

Check for pinched wires that might be grounding out from point A to Point B.
You might check your tail light sockets, too.
They might be bad & shorting out.
We're all playing kind of a guessing game here.
Ya gotta short somewhere.
Good luck.

 

You have a dead short. Something is miswired or a wire is bare. I would use an ohm meter to find it. If you don't know what one is go to a local radio shack or hardware store. You can buy a cheap one for under twenty bucks. Remove the bulbs and put one lead of the meter on each contact and the other to a good ground. If the meter goes to zero on any of them you have found your culprit. Trace the wire all the way back to the fuse block and steering colum. I am an electrician and shorts can really ****. Be patient.

 

I had the same problem. Turned out to be a frayed wire in contact with the rear panel.

 

Check the bulbs,,, I have seen them blow and the filiment will go over to the br*** causing the short. take both bulbs out then put in your fuse if it does not blow replace bulbs. If that does not work look for a pinched wire.

 

thanks for all the help and tips guys. i'll be out in the driveway first thing tommarow trying to chase the short down.
COLE