Dandy. For the first problem, the best suspect is the pickup screen inside the fuel tank. They collapse and block flow, then stretch out again and pass fuel after sitting a few minutes with the engine off. You have the luxury of running on the second tank if you can get switched over to it. That will tell you right away if it's a plugged screen. I had this happen on an '80 Volare, a '78 LeBaron wagon, and twice on my '88 Grand Caravan.
I can't tell you what is wrong with the wiring, but I can help with blowing fuses. A simple trick to finding a short is to replace the blown fuse with a pair of spade terminals, then use small jumper wires to connect them to a 12 volt light bulb. A brake light bulb works well. When the circuit is live and the short is present, the bulb will be full brightness and hot so be sure it's not laying on the carpet or against a plastic door panel. Now you can unplug electrical connectors and move things around to see what makes the short go away. When it does, the bulb will get dim or go out.
For intermittent problems like yours the bulb may be dim already. Watch what takes place when it gets bright. That's when the short is occurring. It could be due to the rocking of the engine when you shift between reverse and drive. It could be due to the body flexing when you drive over bumps in the road. The bulb limits current to a safe value when the short occurs, in this case about one amp.
Thursday, June 25th, 2015 AT 12:35 AM