1990buick lesabre electrical problem

My 1990 Buick lesabre keeps blowing the dash lights and tail light fuse. I cannot afford auto repair. Any ideas on how to find the problem? Any help appreciated. Email me at romeosteel@sbcglobal.net

Questions first.. .
Does it instantly blow fuses when you put them in?
Can you use a digital volt ohm meter?

A short far away from the fuse will have a higher very low resistance than a very close resistance to ground like right behind the fuse box.
Something like .02 ohms.. vrs... .2 ohms.. tells you the distance of a hard short from the fusebox.

You may have to remove all your bulbs and possibly isolate the area of the short.
Which fuse # is blowing.. I found a diagram.

Thanks for your reply Bass. The fuse blows pretty much as soon as I put it in. It's supposed to be a 10 amp fuse. I went up to a 20 and it blows quickly also. I have a couple of volt/ohm meters but I don't think they are digital. They are the kind with the scales and a needle that moves to indicate. I don't know if the dash light problem and the tail light problem are connected. What I need to know is the procedure to isolate the problem. Again, thanks for your help.

First you have to have info on the circuit...a wiring diagram.
Find someone to provde you one like a good library. The diagram show places of disconnections and connectors that will help you illiminate good groups without just hacking and cutting and repairing.

A digital volt/ohm meter is the only way I know to work with very small resistances such as a long piece of wire has. I do this for a living by the way. There are equipments that trace current through wires.

It is best to put a light bulb in place of the fuse now and let it light up with the short to ground its seeing.. That way when you find the bad short the light goes out and your not just blowing fuses.

Can you find a wiring diagram online? I doubt it. Purchase one.. yes. http://www.factoryautomanuals.com/cart.php $58
Thats why I recommend a good library.

Familiarize yourself with the fuse groups involved.. Make a list of all the items that dont work when the fuse.. Or is it fuses? blows. Then check for isolation connectors you can disconnect.. and see if the light goes out.

The positive source of the dash lights and tail lights is shorted past the fuse towards the devices needing the voltage. It may be something like a bulb socket or a electric antenna, something on that electrical branch.

Hello

I had a situation where the fuse would blow as soon I put the brakes on. I put a lightbulb (12volt) in place of the fuse and started unhooking things that were powered by the fues (bulb) The bulb allowed me to test without a fuse blowing. When the bulb went out, I would have found the problem. However, I never did find a short to ground like I thought I would. After taking every bulb out of the brake light system, and having the bulb go out, I put all of the bulbs back in and haven't had a problem since.

Dan

If you go to www.alldata.com you can buy a years membership for one car it used to be $15.00 but check. They have good data and wiring diagrams.