Chrysler Repair: 91 LeBaron: fuse 26 and fuse 47/48 Blow, light fuse, volt ohm meter

Question
QUESTION: i have a 91 lebaron a while ago my electronic istrament cluster craped out it has since lit up but only shows 8's everywere there should b a number now my charging system do's not wrk we have chased the problem down to threw pulling fuses with a test light on the neg terminal on the battery to the  negative wire the light gos out when i pull the 20amp I.O.D fuse under the hood or the #26 10amp interior light fuse inside the car, these fuses have been "blowing" for a while now as well. When the one under the hood go's the drops the car to first gear no matter how fast im going an the sterio, interior lights, an the locks will only open not lock when the fuse go's. When the one under the dash go's its the same exept for the trany works properly

ANSWER: Hi Shawn,
Fuse 47/48 IOD fuse supplies power to fuse 26 under the dash, so these might be blowing due to one item that is overdrawing either one or the other fuse, unpredictably. Other than 26, the 47/48 also supplies the transaxle controller and the instrument panel so it is not surprising that the trans drops into limp mode when the fuse goes. I would suggest testing the resistance of the following items which draw on the fuses: the etax controller, the cluster, reading lamps, courtesy lamps, body computer module, radio, trip computer, underhood lamp, overhead console (if equipped), power mirrors (if equipped). You will need a volt-ohm meter to do that. The wire in question will be either red (from 47/48) or pink (from fuse 26). Let me know if you have such meter and I can go thru the details of how to break down these test measurements to find out what is causing the fuse(s) to blow.
Roland

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: we have chased down the pink wire from #26 it gos to the stock radio(constant power) but i have put in a different deck the cluster has not worked in a while is all electrical there is no underhood lamp  i have a volt meter wich is a mastercraft(052-0060-2) all my reading lamps an courtousy lamps work  i can unlock my car with the door lock but cannot lock it the electric mirors go out and up but not in and down whne i start the car the overhead onsol automaticaly gos to ferinheight not celcius like it used to

Answer
Hi Shawn,
Try observing at the next time one of the fuses blow whichs of the several items has been 'going' when it blew, or was the transmission about to shift, or and item that had just been turned "on" at the time it blew. Then focus on the one(s) that came into play at that moment.  Any of the items that I listed (other than the transmission controller) could cause fuse 26 to blow. It may be that the combination of the radio and the deck and all the other lights, the body computer, etc. can add up to enough current to blow the 10 amp fuse #26. Maybe the deck is drawing power that when added to the others exceeds 10 amps (it is an add on). That the 20 amp 47/48 blows could be due to too much current being drawn from fuse 26 when added to the draw of the safety shut down relay of the transmission. The curent requirements of the safety shut down relay are used to operate the solenoid box circuits that control the shifting of the transmission. It could be that one of the solenoid switches is drawing more than normal. You might try ceasing to use the deck, and maybe disconnecting the power mirrors and overhead module and the door locks and then see if 47/48 no longer blows. If it still does then I would suspect that there is something wrong in the solenoid box. But until you can identify which item is overdrawing the 47/48 fuse or the 26 fuae you will have to live with it.
Roland