I still dont understand why I have less than 9 volts on some of the wiring coming from , what appears to be the firewall. If it didnt have current then I know which circuit had a short. But when you show 6 to 9 volts on a digital meter that tells me either a resistor is in line or something is wrong.........that coupled with arthritis, it is a chore...... if anyone has ideas, Im all ears!!!!
Dirt and rust. Make sure to take a reading with your meter on the negative post of the battery. If it's better on the battery, but 6 to 9v when you use the engine ground or the body ground, you have a dirty rusty ground connection somewhere.
If your ground checks out, you have a bad connection somewhere. Check your fuse box. Does it have 6 to 9v in it? Use the diagram above and logically measure the different circuits.
Half the fuse box is 12v all the time. The other half is key-on and goes through the keyswitch. Measure a hot all the time part, like the brake fuse or the running light fuse. If you have 12v there, you are good and you need to check the key-on circuits.
So turn the key to run and check in the fuse box for voltage on the key-on circuits. If they are 6-9v, then you know there is more than likely something wrong with the keyswitch side of the power feed. You can then drop the column down and poke the keyswitch, if it has 12v coming in and only 9v coming out you know it's no good or the plug in is no good.