Yesterday after work I put in a cleaned up and re-soldered fuse box with a nice blade fuse holder all proper like, blew some fuses and narrowed it down to the wipers somewhere. No fuse blew with the fan & signal + lights on.


This morning I put a spare wiper switch on and blew another fuse, once under the dash I found the issue pretty quick. The wires from the switch to the wiper motor were jammed between the wiper arm assembly and part of the dash structure, I figure it had been in between the two for a while slowly getting cut till it shorted out. I cut and fixed the wires, re-routed them away from the wiper assembly and problem solved.

Thanks for the help and fuse box advice, thankfully it was an easy fix.
Heres a pic of the redone fuse box & fuse holder. What kind of grease should I get for the terminal connections and what are the proper amp fuses for terminals 2-3-4?

Cheers guys,

This morning I switched in the other spare fuse box I have (condition unknown) and at first all was ok. Turned the fan on, it ran and nothing blew. Turned it off and tried the wipers, right away the fuse blew and the gas guage went dead and the amp light came on. Didn't get a chance to test the signals, hooked up a 30amp jump (didn't have any 25's) on the #1 terminals and the same thing happened when I tried the wipers.

So I have a feeling either theres a short in the wiper wiring somewhere or the switch is toast, I have some spares so I'll see if that is the culprit before I start getting into the wiring harness. I'll clean and solder up one of the fuse boxes regardless while I'm at it.

Thanks for the advice so far, will let you know what happens next.

C.

Jim on Volvoadventures.com came up with this solution when stuck on the road with a blown 25A shorty fuse without any spares:



I have about 20 (hopefully a lifetime suppply) of those shorty fuses, so I never actually did this.

The way to narrow down the short is, disconnect all the wires (should be 2 or 3 wires) on the left side of Fuse #1, and plug them back in one at a time until the fuse blows. Once you isolate which wire is blowing the fuse, you will need to figure out which circuit it is. You will need to start to unplug each electrical system on that wire (or unplug all of them and plug them back in one at a time) at the source until the fuse stops blowing. Of course, this method involves using up alot of fuses.

Here's a site that list some of what is on Fuse#1 (hopefully, somebody can list all the equipment on #1 that is not on the fuse cover):

http://65brick.blogspot.com/2008/07/fuse-labels.html

Paul

Yes you could have a short somewhere but first check the top right hand tag on your fuse box. This often becomes loose on its rivit. It then makes a poor connection to that end of the fuse as well as becoming a high resistance joint. Actual fuse contact area is very small and rolling the fuses can cut the end off the fuse material which leaves you with a very dodgy connection. The link to fuse #2 then also becomes a high resistance joint, bad electrically, so doesn't flow the juice well. All of the items you mention take their power from the 25 amp fuse so you give it more work to do as you switch them on. Even if it doesn't seem loose its a good idea to take it off the car, clean it all up and thoroughly degrease. Flow some solder around this joint. Some liquid flux is good to help the colder flow between the 2 sections. Fuse #2 takes it's power from here via the link so it will help that one too. Solder flow all other rivits. Soldering both sides of the 25 amp fuse usually reduces the "red light problem" to virtually nil.
Pics at Ron Kwas site here http://www.sw-em.com/gastight.htm
You can make up a modern 25 amp inline fuse with 2 sort links to connect across the outside of the fuse box for permanent or emergency use if you wish.
Wipers, heater fan, washers, winkers,charge, oil pressure, fuel and OD are on the 25 amp fuse.

Don't try giving the rivit a whack with a hammer and punch. You'll likely fracture the plastic. Done that..............