light problems with new cd player

I've read replies to problems similar to or exactly the same as this, but have seen different/conflicting responses.

I put an aftermarket cd player into my 89 oldsmobile cutlass ciera. I spliced right into the factory wiring. I used the wiring dealie on this site for a reference and it worked fine. The cd player played great until I turned on my headlights. So I had either music or headlights.

I decided to be an idiot and start poking the 3 unused wires to power and ground to see if it fixed it, (no, I didn't think before I did this...)

POP!

The dash fuse and tail light fuse were both busted. I don't know which happened when. Both may not have blown at that time.

I replaced the fuses, turned on my headlights and POP!. For whatever reason, the cd player now works with headlights, but the tail light fuse blows when the head lights are turned on.

I can't make out from other replies if it's the dimmer wire, illumination wire, or something else. And I can't tell what to do with whichever wire it is.

I'm pretty sure I have the dimmer wire hooked up to something (don't remember what) and the illumination wire taped off. Should I ground one or the other, or connect to voltage?

should have spend the 6 bucks at walmart and gotten a wiring harness, would have saved you alot of time and trouble.

-------------
two 12" cadence TXW-12S, cadence TXA-3002 amplifier, 1990 toyota celica system 10 speakers

understood. but because i didn't, i've come to these forums for help.

thanks for the help so far. can someone else offer me some help please?

you must have tapped into the dimmer or illumination wires. If you didn't use a wire harness then you have a spaghetti mess of wires behind the radio. The first thing to do is grab a good test light, computer safe and the first connection to make is ground the radio to a good solid ground, chassis. That will eliminate wondering if the ground wire you chose was correct or not.
Now that you have established a solid ground, test for a 12v constant while car is off. once you locate, test to make sure it stays on with ignition and with lights being turned on. Then check for a switched ignition source and again it will read ground while key is in the off and hot when you turn key to accessory and stay 12v when you turn to run. Double check this also with lights to make sure these are also correct.
My boss actually did something similar with a Sirius radio install. The ground was the illumination wire and when the customer turned on the lights the Sirius would go out. That was a simple fix that I had to do. Hope this helps you.

found myself a new ground. works like a charm. muchos gracias fellas.