help!! electrical gremlins

[dtodd2112]

Hi just got a 1997 1.6 ford escort lx that has a few problems ( electrical, the following dont work:

warning lights on dash, main beam headlights,,flasher headlights,temp guage, fuel guage, rev counter,radiator fan ( suspected),

the following do work but dodgy,

sidelights, dash illumination, brakelights, reversing lights ( seem muddled up eg one light is white one is orange!!), wipers dodgy on lowest setting ( wiring sometimes smokes,

were having a baby soon so cash is short and I only got rid of my van for this reason as no space for baby seat,, a lot of the items seem like theres no power getting to them,, I have changed the fuses they are usually ok but blow sometimes normally its the wiper fuse,, I changed one relay and managed to get a front fogs working!! the 2 fuseboxes seem ok, I have replaced the switches and I have a spare fusebox ( though its not the same matching numbers :( Im very experienced at repairing all types of vehicles,, however Im very impatient so I am useles with electronics,, does anyone know what else I can do? any help would be greatly appreciated, ps, the car has full tax and has only just passed its mot last month!

the car drives faultless apart from an occasional smell of fuel vapour from under the car ( no visable leaks so must be vaporising as it leaKs) i have plugged in a code reader and no codes were shown,, I have autodata that has a relay diagram on for this car,,so anyone who needs info from autodata cd2 please let me know!!

[dtodd2112]

update3,, car broke down due to flat battery,, rac man found the problem,, it was the only fuse that I didnt check,, everything fine now,,, just make sure if you have any electrical probs,, replace ALL Fuses to make sure,, mine had blown because the wiper relay caused the wires to melt near the switch thus blew the fuses,,,