96 Asto electrical puzzle

I turn off ignition but park, break, dash lights all remain on also keytone (yes key out) is activated. Using dome light dimmer I can get the dash lights out and the keytone also goes off. While driving with head lights on dash light work intermittently. Here's the kicker, with headlights on and dash lights not working, if the dash lights decide to turn on the cruse kicks out. How can all these things be related??

Yep, they all could be related. Could be a bad switch or a short in the wiring harness. You can change the ignition switch out and hope that's all it is or get a used steering column and swap it out instead. Either way you're going to get new keys.

I did the whole steering column swap out on my '86 Safari and it cost under a $100 and took less than an hour.

If you have an aftermarket radio in the vehicle, remove the radio and disconnect the harness to the radio. If the problem goes away, check the radio wiring for the ground and dash illumination circuits. They may be incorrectly wired.

Yep, they all could be related. Could be a bad switch or a short in the wiring harness. You can change the ignition switch out and hope that's all it is or get a used steering column and swap it out instead. Either way you're going to get new keys.

I did the whole steering column swap out on my '86 Safari and it cost under a $100 and took less than an hour.

I'm not inclined to dive right in, that deep. Thanks for the insight. I'm at the mercey of the neighborhood profesionals. Sounds like a swich would be easy compaired to tracking down a short.

If you have an aftermarket radio in the vehicle, remove the radio and disconnect the harness to the radio. If the problem goes away, check the radio wiring for the ground and dash illumination circuits. They may be incorrectly wired.

Thanks but, all origional gear, except for a remote starter installed about 3 months ago. It has worked good. It was extremely moist and cold when this problem started. I will share my neighborhood profesional $ experience with you once complete.

[Unreal 3 fuses burnt out. The mechanic could have hosed me for couple of hundred, and I'd have been happy if all was good. But $ 40 later all is great. I don't understand how all those functions could work at all (as they pleased)with burnt out fuses.

Something caused the fuses to pop, they don't just go on their own without a reason. There is a short somewhere that caused them to go, guaranteed. Most of the time, factory electrical wiring and connectors are good for the life of the vehicle, ...if they are not tampered with. If the only thing that was done was fuse replacement, the problem will surface again. When it does, I would suspect the remote starter system as it is connected to all of the circuits that you mentioned. If the 3 fuses turn out to be a permanent fix, buy a lottery ticket ;)

Something caused the fuses to pop, they don't just go on their own without a reason. There is a short somewhere that caused them to go, guaranteed. Most of the time, factory electrical wiring and connectors are good for the life of the vehicle, ...if they are not tampered with. If the only thing that was done was fuse replacement, the problem will surface again. When it does, I would suspect the remote starter system as it is connected to all of the circuits that you mentioned. If the 3 fuses turn out to be a permanent fix, buy a lottery ticket ;)

You are so right. Next time out in slush and road shmeg it started again. I looked at the trailer wiring harness. Sure enough there was a patch of wires all green and fuzzy were the casing had deteriorated. It now makes sense. The auxilary was feeding the park lights and bell tone with vehicle and light switch off. It was the brake light fuse that went this time and tipped me off.

;) first lesson of electrical 101: Any time seemingly unrelated multiple electrical components go "haywire", as yours did, check all aftermarket wiring first, then check for poor grounds. Glad you found the problem.