Short in the Lights

[Pipsta]

So I'm driving along Friday night, hit a bump, pretty big one at that and *pop* out goes all my lights. I limp home using a flashlight and go to work on it the next morning.

I think it's the light switch cause there's wiggle in both the terminals on the switch so I replace the switch. It's not that. It appears that the in-line fuse is burnt out. At least I'm fairly certain it's the right wire cause there's only one yellow wire of that size and it's coming from the black box, going into the wire harness leading to the front of the cart and then looks like the exact same wire is connecting to one of the terminals on the switch. It's on one pole and there's a red wire plus an orange one with white stripe coming off the other side.

I also notice a 'jumper' type blue wire that that connects to the same pole as yellow wire but isn't connected to anything and looks like it's the right length to connect to one of the poles on the ignition switch.

So I replace the in-line fuse, still nothing and the fuse doesn't burn out. I check to see if I"m getting power to the switch and none. I think there must be a break in the yellow wire somewhere and could be intermittent so that's why someone put in a jumper along the way. The guy who I bought the cart from replaced the ignition switch, they buy carts and other stuff from an auction liquidating Disney equipment.

His mechanic probably didn't think the jumper was needed cause the lights worked when they were only 'checked' for a couple seconds not run all night. When he checked, the intermittent break must have been working. They worked for me for a about 10 hours, too, until the bump.

So I re-hook up the jumper to the pole on the ignition switch that provides electricity to the ignition switch to electrify the cart. Works fine then, cart, lights, everything looks good. I think I'm pretty smart at this point. I get a half mile down the road from where the cart is stored that night about 20 mins into me driving with the lights on and *pop*. Fuse blows and since it's on the circuit that electrifies the whole cart from the ignition switch I'm dead in the water. Won't even let me put in a fuse. Pops the instant the fuse touches the circuit or even if I disconnect the neg terminal on the battery, put in a fuse as soon as the neg cable touches the terminal it pops and even if I do all that with the light switch off and then turn it on, *pop*.

As soon as I disconnect the jumper it allows me to put a fuse in and the cart runs fine but of course no lights at all. I even tried hooking the jumper up without the yellow wire that I originally thought had the break in it hooked up and it still popped the fuse instantly.

So I think I"m looking at a short somewhere after the light switch going to the lights. My other thought is what about the draw on that ignition switch fuse? Is the 20 amp fuse in the box getting burned not big enough to power the cart by way of the ignition switch and all of the lights when that jumper is connected. Could that be the reason for the fuse burning?

I don't want to put in a bigger fuse as a solution if there's a short. I'll just run a new wire up front to power the lights for that and then check for shorts after the switch. I just need to know if that draw is too big and that's the reason for the ignition switch fuse being burned up. Also what's the easiest way to check for shorts?

I know electricity is a funny thing and it's sometimes really hard to track down problems. Thanks for any help or insight in advance. Sorry about the 'book' of a post. Wanted to get all my info in first to avois as many of the obvious questions about my issue. Thanks for your patience.

[papaw]

Sounds like a dead short to me but i am just getting started on carts.

[Pipsta]

Originally Posted by papaw

Sounds like a dead short to me but i am just getting started on carts.

What is a 'dead' short?

[Pipsta]

After many hours of rolling around on the ground and doing my isolate method of diagnosing a short where I burned through about 10 fuses I think I found out where the short is. Tail lights wires. Not the blinkers or the brake lights. Just the tail lights. I have it all wired and connected but still have to weave the 'home run' to the switch tomorrow. It's just laying on the floor right now. All hooked up with blade connectors so I can take it all apart to pull it and will zip tie it nice and neat.....tomorrow.