1993 Nissan Truck blows the meter fuse

[vsoccer37]

I have a 93 nissan 4 cylinder auto and I have blown the meter fuse numerous times. I first tried replacing it, and that worked for a couple days. Now it wont start at all. Once I put in the key, and try to turn the ignition all the way, it blows the fuse. I looked underneath and saw that the wires coming from the tranny were in bad shape, so, I repaired them and just tried again and still blowing a fuse. I can't see a short anywhere else and I don't want to tear apart the dash looking for a short if it's somewhere else. I'm not sure where else to look. Hopefully someone else can give me some insight on this because I'm at a loss at the moment. Thank you

[zanegrey]

i had this hapeen to me once.

my power wire to the fuel pump was damaged and shorting oput to the frame..

repaired it and it was back up and running fine..

so track the power wire till you find the short to ground...

[12Ounce]

At the moment I don't have access to my truck or an owner's manual ... but I do have a diagram ... the old style, page after page of lines.

I'll give it a try but the diagram doesn't refer to a fuse as a "meter" fuse. Can you locate it exactly in the fuse box? Do you see what color wire leaves the fuse? (probably difficult).

Does the truck just not run ... or, does it not crank either?

[vsoccer37]

The fuse is on the top right, looking directly at the fuse block. The wire running from it is white with a black stripe. I've tried tracing the wire, but it goes into the bundle of wires leading into the dash. I can't see any shorts on the inside of the cab, so, I'll look under the truck and under the hood again and see if I can find anything there

[12Ounce]

Looks like the W/B wire goes "everywhere". Just for kicks, pull the "ignition relay" ... should be near ... and see if the fuse no longer blows. I wanna make sure I know which way the current flows in this fuse.

10amp fuse, right?

[vsoccer37]

I looked at the wiring coming from the fuel pump and it's all in decent condition. I didn't see anything that was touching or even broken at all. I pulled the ignition relay and nothing happened at all. It is a 10amp fuse. I have the basic wiring diagram and well, that wire does run everywhere but for the white with black wires running to the dash, all were unplugged and it still shorted out. I'm still looking under the hood and frame to see if I see and damaged wires and I hope I find something under there cause if it's in the dash, I don't know what to do to get to the whole group of wires behind the dash

[12Ounce]

Are you saying when you pulled the relay ... you couldn't blow the fuse?

[vsoccer37]

No, I pulled the relay and nothing happened at all. No power went to the cab or anything. I'm pretty sure I pulled the right relay out

[12Ounce]

OK, that tells me the relay feeds the fuse block, and not the other way around. If I can find my reading glasses, I'll point some things that the W/B wires feed.

I would go ahead and unplug that sensor on the tranny ... that you repaired the wires to. See if the fuse holds. I had a back-up lighting switch fail-to-ground on mine once.

[vsoccer37]

I unplugged the wires coming from the tranny and well, it runs now. How important are those wires cause all my lights still work and a quick test drive showed no problems. The short must go all the way into the tranny so I'll have to replace that part, I just don't know how important those wires are and if it's safe to start driving my truck again

[12Ounce]

The gadget is one of two things: a back-up light switch or a speed sensor. You can easily check to see if it is the back-up light sensor.

If you determine that the device is a speed sensor, it's being not hooked up will cause the on-board computer some confusion and will affect your engine performance . I would think a few more miles won't hurt that much. If it is a failed speed sensor, you need to replace it to get the best performance and emission control.

[vsoccer37]

I think it has to do with the speed control cause my backup lights work and everything else checks out when I drove it. That's why I was curious as to what exactly it did because I had no noticable change in the truck at all

[12Ounce]

If it has failed, it probably hasn't worked for a long time ... you may be surprised when it's replaced and maybe it will not make a noticeable difference .. I'm not sure.

[vsoccer37]

Well, the only thing I've really noticed before it went out, is that my gas mileage has been getting progressivly worse, so, maybe it has a small effect in that aspect. Thank you for all your help tho, it has been greatly appreciated!

[kimper]

I would like to say thanks to everyone on this forum. I just had the same problem with 95 nissan HB 5sp. I looked through this forum and found this post and saw where it said check tranny wires. I thought to myself what the heck does the tranny have to do with the gauges, well to my surprise I looked under the truck and there was a broken wire with the other half grounding out on a support. It took five minutes to sauder the wires together and presto, problem fixed. If it wasn't for you guys I would have been tearing the whole dash apart looking for a short... Thanks again and keep up the good work.