Help me diagnose some wiring/electrical issues. 1993 Corolla wagon of infamy.

Subject is a 1993 Corolla. Symptoms are- no taillights. Not parking lamps, not brake lights, not night time. Strangely, it HAS turn signals. Thought it was a blown fuse. Stuck the 20amp from my stereo in It. Normal fuse is a 15. (Yeah, i know. It was for diagnostic purposes.) Made popping noises, blew the 20. Ok, thats....fun? No. Car was parked for a significant part of time due to titling issues (ex wife "LOST" the titles to every single one of my cars. How convenient. ) . Put it back in service because it turns out Minnesota will mail me tabs anywhere, and I needed to go to work after swmbos car ate a trans (that's another story ) . Teh YouTube tells me that the switch under the dash is likely bad. Seems fair. Pedal was locked on for like a year. Would that switch being locked on cause it to pop fuses? Cars been through two hurricanes, a Minnesota winter and God knows what else. The hatch is pretty caved in, but it appears that it's mostly water tight. I haven't taken out a taillight just yet, because it's doing florida stuff outside and I dont feel like getting soaked. Other possibilities include a bad taillight wiring harness- but I dont think it's that due to the turn signals still working. 

I hate electrical. 

Switch isn't going to blow fuses.  I'm going with damaged harness.

Knowing it was parked for a time, my money's on critter damage.

Yeah, my plan is to pull the tails as soon as I can tomorrow am to see what's going on. Critter damage is possible. Its florida. 

In reply to Mndsm :

Something attached to the circuit that’s blowing fuses is shorted to ground. You’ll need to figure out what’s on that circuit, and where it runs. Then look for any intermediate connectors you can unplug & see if it still blows fuses. 

In reply to Pete Gossett :

That worries me. I dug up a diagram for it, and the dashboard lighting is on that same circuit....and is also non functional. I honestly never paid attention to it because I dont typically drive when it's dark out. 

In reply to Mndsm :

Then I’d start by unplugging the easy to reach stuff, then see if it still blows fuses. If not reconnect one-by-one until the fuse pops. 

If the fuse still blows you’ll have to dig deeper. 

Yep, sounds like I'm tearing apart my dash tomorrow. Thankfully there isnt much on this circuit. Dash lights, and tails. 

I'd swap out the associated relay.

Ok, quick update. I bought thos car from another grmer as a present to myself for my birthday in 2014. (Yes, I bought a 400$ Corolla wagon for a birthday present to me. ) it had some fog lights wired in, perhaps from the owner prior to him. In any event, one of those fog lights took a rock strike at some point and rendered those inop. I never really thought about it. Yesterday, when I was fishing around for relays under the hood, I got mad and took out all the fog light wiring....which if you've ever ripped out a fistful of wire, is gigantically cathartic. Like...hella. upon reading the advice of people around here , I had a thought that maybe theres still some residual wiring under the dash that's causing my malady. 

is that....a vamp clamp? It is! And that is a hot power wire that has no ground just dangling the berkeley around in my dash. I don't suppose THAT could have been a problem. 

It totally was. I have taillights now. I don't have brake lights yet, but that's down to one of two issues, and based on the fact that I have NO Brake lights, not a one, but I still have turn signals, 4 ways, running lamps, etc- I'm willing to bet it's that damn brake pedal switch. 

Check the bulbs.

hard to see. But we have victory! One bulb was out, the switch was in fact bad, and it....was unplugged? 

So a ways back, I had some fairly extensive brake work done. 24 years old northern winters and then sitting for a while caused the brake lines to go all to hell. Theres a lot of things I will do, brake lines aren't really on that list. I got the car back, all was well. Or...so I thought. I crawled under the dash today (not easy when you're not small) and I saw a loose plug. Ok....wtf? Finally locate the switch (it's fairly buried) and its corroded all to E36 M3. Pull it, and wouldn't you know it, the female end matches the plug! Plug it in, and.....nothing. switch is in fact, bad! So....I decided to jump the connection to see....wouldn't you know it, I had brake lights. (Yes that is the same wire that was previously buggering my electrical. Reduce reuse recycle!) Well, I had one. So....bulbs! Pulled the left rear taillight, and only one filament was lit. Tapped it a little and the other one lit. One down, one to go. Pull the other one and....nothing. that one is legit dead. We have a list!

Off to O'Reilly. One switch, one bulb, and a pack of 10amp mini spades later, we were ready (the mini spades are for the radio. I didn't have that, either. )

Back home, installed the switch. Two out of three. We're almost home! Pulled the right tail again and installed the new bulb. Lit! We have brake lights, tail lights, turn signals, dash lights.....

hard to see, but is is making stopping lights. 

I mentioned the 10amp spades for the radio. The radio has been dead since I brought it back to life. When I took it out to dig around j  the dash, I noticed the 10amp in it was ....melted! Now that's fun. My guess is the time i did some stupid E36 M3 and accidentally hooked the cables up backwards blew that fuse, and maybe others out. Put in the 10amp mini, and I have radio! Next....the horn. I know that's gonna be a problem, it's mostly disconnected in the front of the car. 

Thanks to everyone who helped me break down the diagnosis process. I truly despise electrical, and aside from the switch,  I would never have figured out the dash wiring. this victory jarritos mandarin slurpee is for you  

This was an excellent "solved/fixed" post. Corolla wagon, comedy, and slurpee. Nailed it. 

In reply to Vigo :

The slurpee was the best part. If you're a fan of orange soda, jarritos mandarin is pretty much the best stuff on the planet.