Mysterious Power Loss on '79 Brat

[jimhickcox]

I was fidgeting with the back of the radio in my '79 Brat today, and while I was putting the center console piece back in place I must have bumped the wire that runs to the cigarette lighter and sheared it off, because when I went to turn the radio on it was dead, and upon inspection the lighter wire was dangling and the fuse that runs to them both was charred and blown. I replaced the fuse, and I've been metering around. The current now crosses the fuse, but isn't making to the radio or the lighter (or the wipers, which are on the same circuit). Is there another fuse hidden up deep in the dash? I can't think of why there would be a second fuse on the same circuit, but I also can't think of what else could have happened that would kill a whole circuit when the fuse is testing good. Am I missing something dumb here?

[croak]

My first step would be to find the grounds and trace them. May have broken or shorted one. Check the back of the fuse block, if it roasted the fuse that bad, could have screwed up the connector on the back. If none of that works, get a meter, and look for voltage at the connectors, if there is no voltage, trace the wires back til you find it. It is possible that you unplugged a piece if harness when you put it back together.

Good luck

ic

[jimhickcox]

After messing around and not finding anything and then having everything turn back on rather suddenly I've discovered that the power to all the dash stuff is tied to the ignition key landing in a particular spot that it's not necessarily inclined to land it. So that seems to be the solution for that for now.