This fuse blowing issue was happening to a friends '85. Culprit was a
blue/white wire that had come loose and was contacting dash metal. IIRC, it
was the wire to cig lighter light bulb. In hindsight I have to wonder if
time/wear and possibly poor design of the cig lighter socket is to blame.
OR..... the person who installed the aftermarket stereo.

At least the 1985 + Vanagons have that dimmer circuit on a fuse. The older
Vanagons don't. On mine, a short on that circuit melted the dimmer
wire-windings which let out the "magic smoke" while I was driving.

Neil.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2018 at 5:41 PM, vw_van_fan_Mark <madvws@cox.net> wrote:

Those dimmer light wires also go to other places in the dash and one of
> those other places may be where a short circuit exists. There is a wire
> to the backlight for the dash vent control levers, a light for the cig
> socket, and also it feeds the factory wiring for the radio.
>
> Mark
>
>>
>>
>

--
Neil n

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