Yes I have unplugged every bulb on the car, it still shorts out.
I bought a bag of 50 - 15 amp fuses fro the flea market for $3.00 so I am not too worried about wasting them.

Today I went and borrowed a really good multi-meter today. The one I had was junk and wouldn't give consistent readings.

I will go out to the car in a bit and test each light socket looking for the one that has a positive wire that shows as a ground. Hopefully I can find it and if I do find it I am not sure what I will have to do to fix it.

I will report back what I find within in an hour hopefully.

Thank you all so much for helping me, I really thank you.

 

Look for rust and corrosion under each connecter wire that goes to metal on the body of the car...this is where you will find shorts on light problems..loosen and clean.

 

The fix depends on what you find. If you're lucky, you'll find a wire rubbed bare & touching some steel structure in the car. Wrap with electrical tape or cover it with heat-shrink.

If you're not lucky, you'll have a similar wire rubbed bare but it's buried somewhere in the wiring harness... that can be a PITA. With stuff unplugged, keep testing any of the (+) wires for continuity to ground. The more connectors you can unplug, the better you'll be able to narrow down the location of the problem.

 

Since you have a lot of fuses to use for testing, you are going to have to unplug electrical connectors, then see if the fuse blows to start narrowing down the short.

There is a brake lamp failure box is in the driver's side tail light. It is a black(?) box that has a 5 wires going into a 6-pin connector. Unplug that and repeat the fuse blowing test.

 

Ok I will be working more on it today. It rained hard all day yesterday.

 

pulled the connector - still blew.

That was a good thought though.

Anyway what I found today sucks. Using a very quality multi-meter here is what I found.

Drivers side brake light / taillight combo socket has 3 wires

black = 0 ohms
orange (brake light) = 1.5 ohms
red / black (taillight) = 0 ohms

Drivers front parking light

all wires read 0 ohms

I didn't test the passenger side.

so all the power wires are direct shorted to ground -- WTF????

So as a temp fix I ran a wire from the fusebox to the 2 talight wires so the car has the taillights lit up whenever the key is on.

At least now we can drive the car at night even though we cannot see how fast we are going or the a/c controls.

Does anyone have an idea why the power wires are direct shorted?
Connect the black wire of the meter to ground - touch the red

 

For all of em to short, that suggests maybe a whole bundle has been pinched & cut. Maybe when bolting up something?

Say for example you remove the seats. While you're working the wiring harness shifts position beneath the carpeting. Bolt the seats back in but pinch the wires & cut through the insulation.

This can be real nasty to find. Any clue such as any work that was done that might have come anywhere near the wiring harness? Parked where mice might get in & chew on stuff? (just trying to think of diverse ideas & something might click in your thoughts)

 

Black should have 0 ohms to ground. The red/blk wire is the power source for all of the lights that are on that fuse. If that wire is grounded anywhere, it will have 0 ohms to ground no matter where you test. That is why you need to isolate the circuit. You should also have the fuse pulled when testing for resistance to ground. The red wire will have continuity to ground if all of the bulbs are plugged in, but I am not sure what the resistance will be.

 

Yeah, PA's right. I was assuming that stuff was disconnected and/or bulbs were not installed.

 

I looked at the wiring diagram again, and that dimmer switch test really didn't verify that your cluster is not the cause of the short. There is also a connector C452 that is in the general area above the radio that the main red/blk wires run to and branch out. I will post a pic later.

You will have to remove the center console, the radio bezel, and the radio. You may have to remove the heater control panel as well to access C452.

If you are going to do this, you might as well test the gauge cluster. Unplug the cluster, C452, the dimmer switch, and the connector in the driver's tail light. Then try the fuse blowing test again.

To remove the console, you will need the 94 shop manual from the spooner link I posted in the online manuals thread in the DIY section. That will show you where all the screws are located. It isn't too bad to remove that stuff once you know where the screws are located.