Advice finding a faulty wire

[dmking122]

I have an issue in my 98 2dr Tahoe, 5.7L Z71. The #9 fuse has been blowing immediately upon replacement. Whenever the fuse blows, it turns off the lights on the instrument panel cluster, the lights on the a/c control panel, and the tail lights. The headlights will stay on regardless of the headlight switch's position. I opened up the headlight dimmer switch control panel and noticed that two wires were burnt at the connection points:
1) the G pin, yellow wire, headlamp switch output
2) the H pin, orange wire, battery fused feed
I ran a fused jumper wire from the C pin (battery fused feed) to the G pin and this also caused the fuse to pop. I unplugged all the rear lights at the tail and stoplamp harness connector and replaced the fuse and turned everything on and the fuse did not blow.

So, with all of that information, I am assuming that there is something outbound of the tail and stoplamp harness connector that is causing a short.

What is the best method to locate the exact problem.
Is there a common issue in this location that would be causing this?
What exactly should I be looking for? Simply an exposed wire?
Is there a possibility that it could be something before the tail and stoplamp harness connector?

Any help would be much appreciated as I would really love to be able to drive at night again.

 

[lesterl]

You probably have a melted light socket....... Unplug the tail light assemblies themselves and put a testlight on the battery + to the line feeding the lights.....