Hello Everyone,

I have a 95 Ram 1500 , and my dash Illumination continues to blow a fuse . It had never done this before and I have owned it for about 4 years . The other day I wired a quick connect in the front and rear for my Mile Marker Sl12000 Winch . The Wiring went great , all I did was hard Wire from the Battery to the front of the truck (Fused) and to the rear as well . On my way home from my friends garage I noticed that my dash illumination was not working, I pulled over and checked my exterior lights , everything was working except I had a headlight out ( High and Low) . When I got home I replaced the bulb assuming that the headlight was the reason the dash lights were out . Nope did not fix the problem. I pulled the fuse panel cover and found that the #13 fuse a 5a was blown....I replaced it and it immediately blew....well 12 blown fuses later I have finally determined that the only way it will not blow the fuse is to turn the dimmer all the way off.....as soon as I turn it about half way it burns another.....I then proceeded to take the entire dash apart and look for a broken or bare wire with no success. I am really puzzled with this and have even unhooked my new winch wires just to be safe and I can't figure this one out. Do you think it could be a faulty switch? Sorry for the long post but if I don't get this fixed soon I will go completely insane and burn it to the ground . It's like George Carlin said about losing stuff...he doesn't care if he ever sees it again he just wants to know Where the *uck it Went ! Thanks to everyone in advance .

SOLUTION : Alright I was able to fix my fuse issue . Finally after replacing the switch twice , changing the cluster and tracing wires. I removed my After market CD PLayer and there was a wire that the Previous Owner had cut and left bare. I believe it was at one time a wire that powered an ashtray light or something as it is an ignition controlled wire . This wire was grounding out on the bottom of the deck causing it to blow a fuse . This wire worked out perfect as I needed an ignition wire to run my new gauges off of . Thank you to everyone for the help .

 

not sure how the dash is wired, but to me sounds as if a neutral wire is ****ed, so therefore causes it to be hot all the time and boom! i dunno, just a thought

 

Well it's only effecting the dash illumination....I traced all the wires coming from the switch and even removes the cluster and checked all the connections as well as bulbs ....still found nothing

 

OK I am convinced that it has to be the switch.....gonna get a new one tomorrow any try it ......if that doesn't work then I dont know what to do

 

there has to be wires touching.....i had a similar problem, and after ripping apart the entire dash, i found a melted wire that fused with another wire, causing the fuse to blow.

 

yea its defently shorting out somewhere, cuz thats what the fuse is made for, the fuse will blow that way u dont sit there and start a fire in ur dash. best i can say is keep lookin, its there somewhere.

 

Problem Fixed !! It was the Switch.....changed it with a used one from a parts truck and it stopped blowing Fuses ! And then it started again a couple weeks later .

 

internal wiring for the switch had to of been bad....