Bypassing Fuse Box

[blade34609]

Hi,

I have a 1983 Toyota Celica GT.
I have a problem with my dash lights turning on.
First the the problem was when i was driving and my tailights, plate lights, side lights, and dash lights all blew out.
The only lights left were my two headlights.
I knew there was a short and I could not find it anywhere after searching.
So I ran a wire from the left head light to both tailights and it turned them on with no problem.
But I knew it was also against the law to drive without license plate lights.
So I ran another wire from the right head light to the license plate lights.
And sure enough it powered the plate lights and side lights.
But to my surprize it also powered the dash lights.
I am guessing there must be a connection between the two.
But the problem is when you drive it for about 10 mins the lights are fine but after that when the engine starts to get hot it shuts off the dash and make my plate lights dimmer.
I was thinking maybe I could just run the dash lights directly to the left headlight and that way split the power so it could handle it.
Do you think this would work?
And is there a wire that would be easy to just "tap" into so when I turned on my headlights they would come on?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.
Owen

[ales]

The only adviceI will give you is to find the short. If you can't find it, take the car in for a mechanic to do it. I suggest you do his, because electrics is no joke. I'm quite good at it, but I have learned to respect it the hard way. How fast can you jump out of the burning car, open the hood, anddisconnect the ground from the battery without a wrench? I did it, let's say, in under 5 seconds in this situation. So take care of the problem properly. And at no time do you wan o bypass the fusebox, it's there for a reason!!!!!

[higgimonster]

The way some of the mechanics here (at my place of employment) have an easy way to find your short. Have one person stand by the battery with the ground cable in hand while the other stands ready to start smelling for smoke. Attach the ground and find were the smoke is coming from (btw, you are goibng to need a lot of fuses for this).

but on a different note. Running all of your lights off of one headlight is not a good idea. The more lights on one line the more strain caused and it makes it much more likely to blow a fuse or worse.

[ales]

Originally posted by higgimonster
...the more lights on one line the more strain caused and it makes it much more likely to blow a fuse or worse.

Espacially if the fuse is bypassed! Sniff sniff kaboom

[blade34609]

I found the short in the car and now dont need to bypass the fuse box.
The short occured in the side light turn signal. I carefully studied the wiring diagram that came with my reapir manual.
I had taken out the bulb and eventually the two wires were touching each other. I taped up the wires and everything runs fine, the dash, tailights, and license plate lights.

Well,
Thanks for all your help
Owen

[ales]

You're most welcome. And good to hear you've found the problem. Good luck and ask away if you need anything else.

Alex