Volvo Repair: Electrical Problems, amp fuse, fuse panel

Question
a 1993 940 wagon, I purchased. Inside dome lights and audio system does not have power. Looking at the fuse panel I noticed the fuse's were taken out of those slots. when I put a 15 amp fuse in the audio slot, it sparked and blew. I noticed medal cubes attached to a panel in back of the fuse panel. There seems to be two missing on the right front of the panel. Are those parts of the system? It's obvious there is a short somewhere. Could this be the place to start?

Thanks

Carl Belfiglio

Answer
Is 15 amps the proper rating for that spot?  It will also spark for sure if you have the doors open cause then the dome light will want to immediatly come on.  The metal cubes could be anything, I don't really know what part you are talking about.  Is it the mountings at the corners? Is it the bus bar that gives power to all the fuses?  I couldn't really tell without a better description of where they are on the fuse panel (inside, outside, mountings, top, bottom, what is it next to, any wires nearby, etc.) or actually seeing it myself.  If you know for sure there is a short there is a trick to finding where it is.  Go to the auto part store and get a sealed beam headlight (like off an old truck) and solder 2 wires to it for the low beam connections.  Then on the other end of those wires put terminals on them that would go into the fuse panel (you can get those at the auto parts store at the same time).  Once you get that all assembled install that in place of the fuse.  The light should light brightly but not hurt any of the circuits.  From there you can test the radio dome light etc to see if they work, where you have available voltage in the circuit with a voltmeter and then where the short is.  Start at the fuse and work your way back.  If you have voltage keep going.  If you have 0 volts, you went to far.  Back up.  Once you find it the light will either go out, or get really dim (if the dome light is on the headlight will be dimly lit, or off if the dome light is of for example).  This trick works well just be careful of where you put the headlamp while you are doing this, don't put it in the car, you could light the seats or carpet on fire or something.  Be careful and you should be alright, use long wires.  Good luck.  Hope this helps.

James