Electrical help needed!

On our way home last night, my headlights suddenly went out. Lucily we were only a couple of blocks away and on a private road. Hazzards, turn signals and brake lights still worked but headlights, park lights and dash lights were dead. On examination today, I found the fuse on the light switch was burned. I replaced the fuse but I now find that it gets wery hot when the headlights are on and only a bit warm with only the park lights running. Also, another thing I had noticed before is that my fuel gauge is unresponsive when the lights are off but jumps towards the full mark when they are turned on. I have checked and double checked all my light connections as well as the connections to the fuel gauge and sender. Everything is as specified in the manual that came with the (Prodesign) harness. With the fuel gauge and sending unit disconnected, the light switch fuse still heats up with the lights on. I don't know if the two problems are connected but the car has 650 miles on it since I first wired it up and this is the first time that fuse has blown. Help!

Tropical Buzz

This sounds to me that you could have a bad ground. Check all your grounding points that they good clean metal to metal.

Marvslims

This sounds to me that you could have a bad ground. Check all your grounding points that they good clean metal to metal.

Marvslims

Thanks for the reply, Marv. Checking all grounds will be job 1 today. I will post an update when I am done.

Tropical Buzz

Thanks for the reply, Marv. Checking all grounds will be job 1 today. I will post an update when I am done.

Tropical Buzz

Update: At everyone's advice, I went over every connection and cleaned and reconnected my main ground lug (needed it) along with all other grounds. I did have one mistake in my headlight hi/lo beam connection which I corrected. All dash wiring, gauges, switches, etc is by the book. Damn thing is that while the headlight switch doesn't seem to be getting quite as hot as before, the friggin fuel gauge still moves up towards full when I turn on the lights. If I disconnect the ground at the sending unit it makes no difference. If I disconnect the signal wire, then it remains unresponsive. Any ideas? [xx(]

Tropical Buzz

Update: At everyone's advice, I went over every connection and cleaned and reconnected my main ground lug (needed it) along with all other grounds. I did have one mistake in my headlight hi/lo beam connection which I corrected. All dash wiring, gauges, switches, etc is by the book. Damn thing is that while the headlight switch doesn't seem to be getting quite as hot as before, the friggin fuel gauge still moves up towards full when I turn on the lights. If I disconnect the ground at the sending unit it makes no difference. If I disconnect the signal wire, then it remains unresponsive. Any ideas? [xx(]

Tropical Buzz

Update #2
I'm getting some advice over at Club Cobra but I guess I'll continue to update this thread for the record in case some other Unique owner experiences a similar problem down the road.
Latest is that I probably should install a relay for the headlights and a voltage stabiliser in the fuel gauge circuit. From other Unique owners' perspective - I'm sure many of you have the same harness That I do - any thoughts?

Anybody out there?

Tropical Buzz

Update #2
I'm getting some advice over at Club Cobra but I guess I'll continue to update this thread for the record in case some other Unique owner experiences a similar problem down the road.
Latest is that I probably should install a relay for the headlights and a voltage stabiliser in the fuel gauge circuit. From other Unique owners' perspective - I'm sure many of you have the same harness That I do - any thoughts?

Anybody out there?

Tropical Buzz

Hello hello hello hello (echoing sound)

Update #3. Just to satisfy myself that the problem wasn't in the wiring harness between the dash and the sender, I disconnected the signal and ground wires from the gauge and ran jumper wires directly between gauge and sender. Same symptoms. The only constant is the positive lead to the gauge. All other gauges are fine. I did notice however that the needle also jumps a bit when I turn on the windshield wipers. It still remained unresponsive with the ignition on and lights off. I think I will order a new gauge and sender along with a voltage stabilizer and see what happens.
PS; I drove around quite a bit last night with the lights on and no problems with the fuse - fixing up my grounds seems to have worked, but should I still install a relay?

Tropical Buzz

Hello hello hello hello (echoing sound)

Update #3. Just to satisfy myself that the problem wasn't in the wiring harness between the dash and the sender, I disconnected the signal and ground wires from the gauge and ran jumper wires directly between gauge and sender. Same symptoms. The only constant is the positive lead to the gauge. All other gauges are fine. I did notice however that the needle also jumps a bit when I turn on the windshield wipers. It still remained unresponsive with the ignition on and lights off. I think I will order a new gauge and sender along with a voltage stabilizer and see what happens.
PS; I drove around quite a bit last night with the lights on and no problems with the fuse - fixing up my grounds seems to have worked, but should I still install a relay?

Tropical Buzz