My electrical problems...

[97GSTspyder]

I may have asked a couple of these before. I've been meaning to get around to fixing these problems, but have been to busy, and now I'm sick

Ok, as some of you know my car has a couple of electrical problems....Ever since the first day I got the car, the fuse next to the radio fuse kept popping...Every time I would try putting a 10A fuse in it (which is what it called for), it would pop...So I thought there was a short somewhere....Well a few months ago or so, I put a 30A in there to see what all would work. Well the 30A didn't pop. I found out that it controlled my interior lights, garage door opener, door chime, security, power antenna, and the light on the dash that indicates if a door is open. I think that is all it controlled...Anyway with the 30A in there, a couple minutes had passed and I seen smoke from the left side of the dash, near the windshield. I stormed ass out of the car and took the fuse out. (I was parked in the garage doing this). I took the driver side visor off and I noticed all of the wires to the garage door opener were fried. Anyway now when I put a 10A fuse in, it doesn't pop, doesn't even spark like it used to. Interior lights, door chime and power antenna only work, nothing else....The thing is, after I put the fuse in, start the car and run it it's all fine....After I shut the car off and turn it back on, I get a CEL until I take that 10A fuse out, then the CEL is gone. Makes no sense to me. Anyway I plan on ripping out my entire dashboard this week as soon as I get over my cold. My main questions are - exactly how hard is it to take the dash out? What are the wires that I'm looking for? Ones that are fried, no covers on them, etc? Is it even possible for me to fix these problems myself?

Oh yeah, and I've been having a couple more electrical problems...My damn ignition switch. This hasn't happened in a few weeks, but I'll be driving along and the power will completely die. No throttle, nothing. I'll have to reach up under the dash and jiggle the ignition switch around a bit to get everything to work again...My dash lights - the ones that light up the heater controls, etc...They'll go out every few minutes, I'll have to tap the controls a few times for the lights to come back on.....My glove box - light comes on whenever it feels like it. When the light is off, I'll have to literally slam the glove box a few times to get it to come back on. Any ideas on how these problems can be fixed too?

Thanks for any help.

[bighauns]

That sounds like a tonne of problems. Personally, I don't know if I would attempt them myself if I wasn' somewhat experienced with electrical. Do you have any friends who know what they are doing?? Maybe take it somewhere and have them just look at it, like an electrical specialty shop. Don't tell them to fix anything, but just ask for their help.

[97GSTspyder]

nope none of my friends know anything about electrical work any other problems i've had with my car, i've fixed myself (well except the whole CW thing that happened when i first got it, but i didn't know shit about cars then)....i hate paying an assload of money for someone to do it. my mechanic is very well experienced but that would be $67.50/hour for labor...ouch...as for the ignition switch, i was looking at it a little bit ago...and where the one wire harness plugs into the ignition, it looks like it doesn't seats all the way. that shouldn't be too hard to fix...as for the rest of the work, i have a little experience with electrical work. i might as well try it at least...this is the only thing that scares the hell out of me though...working with the car's electrical system