Red wire with some crispy insulation.... Options

[advman89]

I'm in the depths of a full dash replacement and I'm need to figure out a situation.

I have a couple things to address.

FUSE 11 (Hazard / Interior Light) has never worked-dead short immediately. I thought I remember someone saying that I need to look at the ground under the passenger seat and the passenger door switch as possible issues there. But I also have a some weirdness with the Hazard too...

There is a new square relay installed and some wires cut in from the factory hazard switcher. The turn signals are all working, but I need to get the hazards operational.


And on top of that, I discovered this red wire, long melted...will splice in a new wire, but thought the group might be able to point me in a direction.

I know I have a color wiring chart...off to the archives for it to start looking for things.

[advman89]

Here are some photos...

PIN 12 (depending on diagram--some say Pin 1)- Supply. That connection goes to the ignition (I believe). That was replaced by the PO at some point in it's history.

The connection goes from there to the connection by the fuse panel. I had to cut the wire to get factory connector off (eyelet style)--the second bare wire there was also connected to the same wire, but didn't suffer the same melt.

I am very keen on burning electrical smells...and I've never once smelled anything "burning" in the car. Dad was in avionics and my other hobby is old audio equipment...so it's in my genes to suss out bad wiring, I guess!

[Costa05]

I have a 73 and dont have that screw post connection either. It looks like the PO installed a terminal block to make the spliced connection of two wires at that spot. Eyelet to eyelet. Likely trying to repair a problem, and the problem still exists evident of the melted wire. I would probably break out a continuity tester and voltmeter to confirm where it goes and what was its purpose. If by any chance it passes through the ignition switch, then knowing first hand that 914 ignition switches are super cheaply made, and high failure rate, I would put that as a potential shorting out location. A quick test would be seeing if you have continuity of the red wires to a ground location point. Battery disconnected. Test continuity in both key off, key on, and key start positions. If you discover continuity at all with test then you narrowed down your problem further. Best of luck.