Gauge Fuse?!

[nomadci]

I cannot for the life of me figure out why my gauge fuse keeps blowing. I went from 10amps to 25 and it still blows. Not immediately, only after the car has been running a while...not hot. All gauge functions work fine, temp, gas and oil light.....help!:confused:

[acardon]

What kind of gauges? Original gauges didn't have a fuse. I suspect a pinched wire under the gauge cluster or one of the gauges.

[nomadci]

Original gauges and cluster with after market American wiring harness. Pulling the gauges out this afternoon.

[acardon]

Is it the dash light fuse or power to the gauges. The dash light wiring also goes to the clock and the heater control.

[nomadci]

power to gauges

[warpwr]

Original gauges (gas and temp) appear to get power directly from the pink hot wire (un-fused) and through the gauge to ground via the sender resistor.
There could be a fuse added into those pink wire circuits but the fuse should not blow unless shorted somewhere. The current through them is minimal I believe.
The dash lights are on the gray wire from the headlight switch dimmer resistor.
The dash lights were fused at 2 amps in 1956 and un-fused in 1955. That fuse was on the headlight switch. In 1957 I think the dash lights were fused on the fuse block.
I also used some aftermarket gauges with lights and had to up that 2 amp lamp fuse to 7 amps to keep it from blowing.
The aftermarket gauges have little "black boxes" and get power individually elsewhere but I don't recall the fuse size or where I connected them.

[Shua57]

Damon, if it is popping the fuse then it sounds like a short. Might try replacing the fuse and if it doesn't pop start wiggling the wires to see which one is shorting out.
Josh

[nomadci]

I at least isolated the short to the back-up lights. I didn't realize until today that the fuse only pops when I put the car in reverse. I disconnected the backup switch on the column and this cleared the problem of blowing the gauge fuse,:) now I have to trouble shoot the backup lights to find what is an obvious short. Making some progress......wow,:eek: who knew the gauge fuse was associated with the backup light circuit.