Hello,

I am new to the forum and just recently bought my 3rd toyota truck, a 1986 22r reg cab 4x4 5 speed. It has 130K on it. I had an 83 years agao and a 98 ex cab a few years back also.

My problem is last night while I was driving, the turn sigal indicators came on and stayed on for about 30 secs with no advanced warning. Then all of a sudden the dash, marker, and turn signals went out, as well as the horn and 4 ways.

All I have now is brake lights, head lights and back up lights. I traced it to the tail lamp fuse under the dash and the 4 way/horn fuse under the hood. I replaced the 4 way fuse and it works and doesn't blow now. I also relaced the tail lamp and when I turn on the head lights, it instantly blows. I traced all the wiring I could from the tail lights up to the cab and from the front marker lights back into the fenders and I found no shorts or wiring worn through the insulation.

I also replaced the tail lamp relay and the flasher and no dice.I also pulled all the turn signal and marker light bulbs and turned the lights on and it still smoke the fuse

Other than this the track runs perfect(maybe a little valve seal puff here and there.

Anyone have any other ideas or areas to check?

Thanks in advance for any info.

im actually having a very similar problem, but mine started after being rear ended and im still hunting for shorts.
tail light fuse blows when headlights turned on, and so i cant drive at night (no tail lights, gauge lights)

if you dont mind my asking even after ahving provided no valuable information, wheres that relay located?

The relay and flasher on my 86 is right under the fuse box under the dash. I got the replacements from autozone, so I don't know how good they are?


I went over evey inch I could see of the rear wire harness from each light up over the spare tire down the frame and into the cab and see no melted wires or rub spots through the wire wrap.

I have no idea where to go from here. I am wondering if the turn signal bulbs have anything do do with it. The indicators
came on in the dash and stayed on right before the fuse went and the dash light went out?

Anyone else have any ideas?

I would check that all the grounds are good, the headlights are grounded via the combo switch on the steering wheel (likely to the main cab ground point in the driver's side kick panel). If that connection is bad, the headlights could be finding ground through the tail lights. Otherwise, with all the bulbs out of the affected circuit, check for continuity between any of the lamp socket connections (there should be none). If you find continuity, then there is a short somewhere in that circuit.

It turned out to be the trailer wiring that was shorting out. I pulled it all out and it's fixed. I bought the truck with the wiring already installed so the previous owner must have installed it wrong or one of the connectors or the box must have went bad.


Thanks for all the replies.