Well, here it is, another week passed by, and still no "definite solution. But I did have an idea, and has possibly helped me track down the problem. I thought that if I turned the dim switch all the way down, then turned on the lights, I would at least get a few moments with the lights on to try to track down the source of the short. It worked! So with the dash lights on, I turned on the stereo, heater, fan on high, turn signal, and reverse lights all at once, and the fuse did not blow. So I started the engine, and still the fuse did not blow. Keep in mind that the dash lights were on really low. So I put the car in first gear to take off down the street, and the dash lights got very bright. Very weird. But once I shifted out of first, they returned to normal. It took me awhile to figure out that shifting into first causes the short, not the back and forth motion of accelerating down the street, and i still haven't tracked down exactly why. By this weekend, I will have it figured out. Does anyone know of any wires that have anything to do with this that are located in the area of the shifter/first gear area? There wouldn't happen to be any stereo wiring running through this same spot, would there? I still haven't gotten any further with the short in my jbl amps...yet. I'll keep all posted incase they have this same problem.