Chevrolet Repair: electrical short, fuse box, easy job

Question
QUESTION: I had a problem with my speedometer and odometer fuse.  It would blow every fuse put in until a 30 was put in. Then it killed my battery.  Took that out.  I am trying to figure out if the short is in the fuse box and if so how I fix it and what to look for.

ANSWER: First of all do not put a larger fuse in that circuit than is recommended. You can cause further damage to circuitry and components.
You need to obtain a short tester (not expensive) and install it in place of the fuse. It will kick on and off when short circuit is evident. Then start disconnecting all related components on that circuit one at time to see if short goes away. If short is still evident after disconnecting all components it's most likely in the wiring. You'll then need to to trace down all the circuits...not a easy job.
Without an electrical schematic it's going to be difficult to diagnose.

Hope this helps,
Robert

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

QUESTION: How do I get to all the things to disconnect.  Do I tear the dash apart where the gauges are or the fuse box part of dash or just the whole thing.  Just so I got the answer right, if I would plug that short tester in and then unplug the speedometer and it reads that its not the problem I just keep going until I do find the problem.  Is is just a cord kind of wire or something and are they cheap to fix.  I am hoping that its all cheap to fix.  Anyway thanks for the help, thats more than I get from people around me.

Answer
Without some knowledge of the electrical system your problem is going to be hard to diagnose.
The speedometer fuse circuit may have more items than just the speedometer on it. After installing the short tester in the fuse circuit you will need to disconnect all items on that circuit to see if each one of them were the cause of the short circuit. It's like checking Christmas tree lights to see which is the bad one. One bad bulb knocks out all the bulbs. You really need a repair manual and some understanding of the circuitry to fix this.

Hope this helps,
Robert