Well, I found it..................
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 9,206
Likes: 17
From: Sewell NJ
Well, I found it..................
..the short I've been chasing for the last 2 months.
After pulling the entire dash twice the short was in the wires that go to the brake light switch. They were pinched in the steering column support and finally rubbed through the insulation. The first time I pulled the dash I tried all the wiring and everything worked fine. This was because I dropped the column to pull the left lower dash pad and the wires no longer shorted to the steering column brace. I pulled the dash again over the past two weekends and finally saw the abraided wires. A little soldering and a cover of corrugated plastic tubing solved the problem. 
On a side note, I'd like to meet with a few of the engineers that came up with the dash layout and wiring for a character building experience on their part.
After pulling the entire dash twice
the short was in the wires that go to the brake light switch. They were pinched in the steering column support and finally rubbed through the insulation. The first time I pulled the dash I tried all the wiring and everything worked fine. This was because I dropped the column to pull the left lower dash pad and the wires no longer shorted to the steering column brace. I pulled the dash again over the past two weekends and finally saw the abraided wires. A little soldering and a cover of corrugated plastic tubing solved the problem. On a side note, I'd like to meet with a few of the engineers that came up with the dash layout and wiring for a character building experience on their part.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 876
Likes: 1
From: Same as our leaders Out of my mind
Congratulations! Electrical bugs can be very frustrating. I had a similar experience this weekend with my 79's stereo and center gauges. It wasn't until the 2nd or 3rd go round that I also found pinched speaker wires and a missing electrical connection on my volt gauge.
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 9,206
Likes: 17
From: Sewell NJ
Originally Posted by Bangkok Dean
Boy you are lucky to find your short sometimes it takes a complete tear down.
To get to this point I pulled the entire interior of the car and unwrapped/rewrapped the entire wiring harness from the taillights to the fuse panel and from the fuse panel to the main and center console. There were times along the way where I almost seriously considered just selling it and getting a new C6. 
But how do you sell 20 years of your life not to mention the 3 quarts of blood I contributed along the way. The only bright side in this whole thing is that while everything was out I installed the iPod interface to my Alpine so I now have access to my entire CD library through the head unit.
