Fuse 12 Keeps Blowing in my 89 560SL!

[sshankman]

I hope someone can give me advice here, because I'm not sure what to do.

A little background: My 560 has been out of service for about 6 months, as I took my sweet time installing new leather and a new top, and having my wheels powder coated (look great, by the way). During that time, it was started and moved around occasionally, but not enough, as when the job was finally complete, the battery was dead. I jumped it a few times, but no matter how long I drove, it still wouldn't start without a jump. I put a new battery in, and it worked great.

Next, I noticed that the clock stopped working. When the radio wouldn't turn on, I figured it was a fuse. Sure enough, number 12 (white, 8 amp) was blown. As i inserted a new one, there was a spark and the new one blew immediately. Just for fun, i tried a red 16 amp fuse and it didn't blow, but when it went in, i heard a relay click and the ignition buzzer went on, as if the keys were in the ignition (they weren't). I removed the 16 amp after the test.

I have a feeling that this problem is correlated to the recent battery change, but I have no clue what the relationship could be. There's a short someplace. My research on this forum found that it could be the radio, but this wasn't happening before the battery change, and throughout the 6 month reconditioning period, the radio and associated wiring was untouched.

any ideas?