Finding a shortcut

I had the problem that every now and than the same fuse blew, one time it lasted a week and other times 2 weeks but it kept blewing. There was a shortcut somewehere but how do you find a shorcut like that.

There is a trick to find shortcuts without bying a complete box of fuses. Remove the fuse and replace it with a headlight. When there are not to many devices connected everything will work fine and the lamp will burn lightly. When there is a shortcut the light will burn at full power. Now you can fiddle with the wiring until you see the lamp burn bright (or stop burning bright when you hava a constant shortcut) and at that time you now that the shortcut must be looked for in that direction.

In my case the problem was found in the wiring of the rear brake switch which sometimes made a shortcut via the frame. The problem itself is easy but finding the cause can be hard. With this trick it's a lot easier to find such problems.

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(c) W.P.Barendsen 2001