I have a 1990 suzuki samurai that i have been restoring. I tried hooking up a stereo to what I thought was the existing stereo plug and all worked great until I turned my lights on. Then the stereo power was gone and the lights on my instrument cluster went out except for my brights indicator is now on until I turn my brights on and then it turns off. I un-hooked my battery over night to see if I confused the ECM (which I just had rebuilt) but it is still having the same problem... All the fuses are good. Everything worked great until I tried to install a stereo...
All the start indicators work like the check engine, brake light in the center of the cluster, they all work including my turn indicators...
I hope someone has experienced this same problem and has a suggestion.

Thanks,
Eric-

If you unplug the stereo does everything start to work again?

The first time it did... But then I tried plugging the stereo back in to see if was just a fluke but that's when it happened. And what else is weird is now the stereo will stay powered with the lights on where before it wouldn't.... But I have no cluster lights and the brights indicater is on...
Thanks,

Eric-

It sounds like you have a ground wire setup incorrectly.   I would need to go over the wiring diagram to see where though.

I haven't touched any ground wires or spliced any wires. I was plugging the wires from the stereo straight into the plug of what I thought was the female end of the radio plug. I didn't mess up my ECM did I?

Thanks for your help,

Eric-

Almost everything is mechanical on the Samurai, so you should be ok.  I would first try disconnecting the wires on the Stereo then test them on eat a time, see what is causing your lights to go out.

My brights indicator stays on also... and my cluster lighting does not work....  guess we're in the same boat.  I have a radio with speakers you can't hear....

The stereo has been unplugged since this all happened. I wonder if I some how shorted out my switch... The problem with that is that the switch isn't cheap and it is all combined with the wiper switch...
Thanks again and mbruce, stay tuned and let's see if we can both benefit from this post...

The Samurai is a ground based system, everything is usually hot and is turned on by attaching the circuit to ground.  So it sounds like you have a ground wire spliced in somewhere where it isn't supposed to be.

Sadly this means going over all of the wires under your dash looking for something crossed where it shouldn't be, or something not connected when it should be.  If you go to Acks Faq you can look up a Samurai Wiring Diagram, he might even have the FSM.  If not try SuzukiInfo.com or h http://suzukipitstopplus.com/ where you can get official FSM's in PDF format.  Or even print version but it's pretty steep, I would check with Hawk Suzuki or E-Bay first.

Ok so I did some research on the wiring schematic and this is what I found...

I plugged the constant from the radio into the white and green, the power into the white and black and the ground into the red yellow...

Here is what all the wires connect to...

White / Green; From the battery to the fuse box, then to the Comb SW, then to the clock (there is no clock its just the female side plug)

White / Black; From the ignition switch to the Fuse Block, to the radio (I had no radio), to the Clock (see above) to the cigarette lighter...

Red / Yellow; Originates at the clock, splits, (1)one to the ILLUM LTS RHEOSTAT (dead end) and the illum coupler where it dies with a red / green. The red green originates at the illum lts coupler and splits between the two leading to the inst cluster (red / green)

Red / Yellow; Originates at the clock, splits, (2) goes to Radio, then to Inst Cluster then to illum lt where it meets up with red / green again, then on to the rear defog sw (ends)

Any ideas where it is faulting? Is my illum lts rheostat bad? Is it the comb sw?

Thanks again,

Eric-

I forgot to mention that the Clock Plug wires are as follows, Wht Blk, Wht Grn, Red Ylw, Blk... Now the plug that I plugged the radio into had only three wires and they were the same as the clock minus the Blk... I ohm'd them out and found that they are the same wires...

Not sure if that helps at all...

Thanks again,

Eric-

I'll try to take a look at the wiring tonight and see what I can track down.

Thanks, I wonder if I fried the bulb and that is a pass thru bulb and that's why it's shorted out or acting like a bad ground...
But then again, I'm not and electrical engineer so I could way off...
I can scan in the wiring diagram and post it later today so you can see what I'm seeing.

Thanks,

Eric-

Here is the Wiring Diagram...
Thanks

Eric-

red and yellow is not ground, it is constant hot.  go to chassis ground.