Narrowed it down but still need ideas

CivicEater said:

A friend had the idea to pop in a 30 amp fuse and see if it will hold...any thoughts?

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If a 20 AMP fuse is blowing, then a 30amp fuse will do the same. It will draw as much current as possible until the fuse blows, or your battery goes BOOM!


Here is a thought. Run your own wires. Until you solve this, you need a car to drive, right? It will take only a few minutes. The black wire off of the fuel pump is the ground wire. The brown/pink wire is the hot wire. (according to the Haynes Manual anyway.)

Follow the existing ground wire (black), and make sure it is properly grounded and secure. It shouldn't run very far. Then you will know your ground wire is good.

Secondly, take the brown/pink wire, and disconnect it from the inertia switch. Don't cut it, but rather remove it from the plastic housing. Then run a wire all the way to the positive terminal on the battery. Somewhere inbetween, near the drivers seat, wire in a switch (get at radioshack for cheap). Also, wire in a 20A fuse. That way something BAAADDDDD doesn't happen. Then connect the new wire you ran to the brown/pink wire you removed from the inertia switch. Now you are ready to go! But, if the fuse does blow when you activate the switch, it means that the short is on the brown/pink wire, inbetween the fuel pump and the inertia switch. That will actually help you a lot as you just found where the short is!

Here is what I can do to solve the short problem. Follow the positive fuel pump wire (Brown/Pink) from the fuel pump to the inertia switch. Make sure you are able to see the wire everywhere it goes. Look for missing insulation. If no abrasions appear, test that section of the wire. Run a "jumper wire" inbetween the inertia switch, and the fuel pump. This will bypass this section of the factory wiring, and will determine if the short is in this section. Now, install a new fuse, and turn the ignition on. If the fuse blows, you know that the brown/pink section is not causing the short.

Leave this jumper wire intact, because we are not 100% sure that the brown/pink wire is not grounded somewhere (probably isn't, but just in case).

With the jumper wire ran, next look to the wire that goes from the inertia switch to the CCRM AND the PCM (The wire is Dark Green/Yellow). It goes to both places, so the short is somewhere here. I don't know how the wire connects to the CCRM and the PCM, but my guess is that it's going to be a PITA to disconnect them. First go over the wires to see if you can see any insulation rubbed off. Follow them carefully, as the short is here somewhere.

I don't think you will be able to run jumper wires unless you cut & splice into the factory wiring. This isn't a good idea, but it will tell you where the short is. Post back and let me know if you made any progress. If you need to, cut the wire where it connects to the PCM (about 6-12 inches from the PCM). Then run a jumper wire from the PCM to the jumper wire you created earlier (inertia switch to fuel pump wire).

Put a new fuse in, and turn the ingition on. See if you blow a fuse. If you don't, you found where your short is. If not, you need to make a jumper wire for the CCRM to the inertia switch to fuel pump jumper wire.

Post back before you cut into wires on the PCM or CCRM. Let us know your progress and we will go from there.
Scott