Stereo & Electronics - Electrical Blown Fuse Blues…Need help!

Good morning everybody,

I hope you all are having the beginnings of a great Labor Day weekend.

I hope that someone out there can help me with a problem I am having with my electrical system. I am trying to exhaust every avenue before I give up and take it to a specialist that is probably going to charge me quite a bit to fix it. The other problem is that my car will not pass state inspection because of this. So I can’t drive my car until this issues is resolved.

It seems that every time I shift the car into reverse, the #2(TURN B/U) 20 amp fuse blows. When this happens, the turn signals, reverse lights and automatic on driving light functions are rendered inoperative.

So, you can see the situation that I am in and what a pain in the ass it has become. Fortunately I have a second vehicle that I can borrow, but I really want my Camaro back. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions before I finally give up and take it to some guy that will charge me an arm and a leg to fix a simple problem.

Thanks

only thing you can do is trace the wire and see where the short is you can try checking all the exposed wires first that are fed off this fuse and maybe youll get lucky,I had a mustang kike that once started tearing the carpet up looking for a short.halfway thru my buddy said lets try and put another fuse in for the hell of it,we did and it did not blow we must have jiggled something and it never came back again.I know thats not much help but its all i got good luck.

only thing you can do is trace the wire and see where the short is you can try checking all the exposed wires first that are fed off this fuse and maybe youll get lucky,I had a mustang kike that once started tearing the carpet up looking for a short.halfway thru my buddy said lets try and put another fuse in for the hell of it,we did and it did not blow we must have jiggled something and it never came back again.I know thats not much help but its all i got good luck.


Thanks tonyt123blue,

for your response on my posting. Unfortunately I have already tried replacing the fuse, but it still blows. I will try to trace the wire like you suggested. I think that it, the problem, lies somewhere in the switch that turns on the reverse lights. I think this because that is the only time it pops. It does not pop when I do anything else.

Anybody have more ideas on what this little gremlin might be?

A little assistance in tracking it down...

On an automatic, the backup lights run through the Park/Neutral position switch which is mounted at the base of the shifter. On a manual, the lights are controlled through a backup light switch which is mounted in the left side of the transmission. In either case, they are fed from the 20A turn/backup fuse. The power goes into the switch in a brown wire and out to the backup lights through the light green wire.

The best place to start tracing the problem is at the switch. Test for a short to ground on the light green wire (if the brown wire was shorted, the fuse would blow even before you put it in reverse). If you don't find a short in the light green wire then the switch itself is at fault and must be replaced. If you do find a short then check the backup light sockets and the wiring close to them. Hopefully you'll find the problem without having to trace too far into the circuit.

A little assistance in tracking it down...

On an automatic, the backup lights run through the Park/Neutral position switch which is mounted at the base of the shifter. On a manual, the lights are controlled through a backup light switch which is mounted in the left side of the transmission. In either case, they are fed from the 20A turn/backup fuse. The power goes into the switch in a brown wire and out to the backup lights through the light green wire.

The best place to start tracing the problem is at the switch. Test for a short to ground on the light green wire (if the brown wire was shorted, the fuse would blow even before you put it in reverse). If you don't find a short in the light green wire then the switch itself is at fault and must be replaced. If you do find a short then check the backup light sockets and the wiring close to them. Hopefully you'll find the problem without having to trace too far into the circuit.

Thanks WhiteBird00,

for your assistance in tracking down my electrical gremlin. I will let you know what my findings are as soon as I dive into it yet again.

Anyone have a picture of the switch's location? I'm having the same problem right now.

I thought you said it was mounted to the transmission on a manual? :confused:

I thought you said it was mounted to the transmission on a manual? :confused:

I'm sorry - I suffered a brain fart caused by all these hurricanes. I was giving the location of the dimmer switch for another thread.

Here is a picture of the backup light switch location on a manual transmission.

http://www.fl1v.org/ls1/backupswitch.gif

It`s the backup switch! I had the exact same problem.I checked allthe wiring and founf nothing.Then I changed the backup switch on the Tranny.Now it works again.Looks like a part that often fails.

Thank you,
my LS1 brethren. Again you have assisted me with good information and I hope that I can return the favor in the near future.

I will dig into that problem this week and let you know what happens. I have really been too busy with work and my personal life to get back into the garage and to work on my ride.

Bad Fbody owner bad!!! :(

Well I unplugged the marked switch in the picture above, in hope to at least not have back up lamps but to stop blowing fuses, but I think it was the CAGS cuz my back up lamps still work and my CAGS doesn't any more lol

Ok I got it :) that picture shows it on the drivers side the back up lamp switch is on the passenger side.