Fried some wires, What to do next? Options

[john77]

Okay, before anyone else says it, yes, I'm an idiot. Now we have that out the way...

I've been trying to troubleshoot to figure out why my horn isn't working. Last night I thought I'd narrowed it down to the switch and then as I was looking at the wiring diagram my brain had a bright idea.

I figured if I jumped a wire from 30 to 87 on the horn relay base it would bypass the need for the solenoid to be triggered thus bypassing the need for the switch, and if everything else in the circuit was working the horns should sound.

So I just tried it and they didn't. (Was I wrong?)

Then, and now I've stopped to think about it I have no idea why, I decided to take that wire out and instead jump it from 85 to 86 and... puff... a cloud of smoke wafts from under my dash and I quickly turn off the ignition.

On closer inspection I've melted the brown wire (that haynes says should be brown/white) and the red/white wire that both go into the relay base. And I also noticed a brown wire attached to the ground by the fuse box has a blister in it too, although I'm not sure how those two things are connected?

So, what did I do and what do I need to do next? And why didn't fuse 8 pop and save me from myself?

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks
John

[Tom]

Even jumping 86 t0 85 on the horn relay should not result in fried wires UNTIL the horn button was pushed. It may be that the wire from J-4 pin 85 is grounded all of the time. Probably at the steering wheel.
When I first got my car, the horn would work sometimes. I finally found that J-13 was not always operating. Cleaning the socket and prongs and slightly spreading the prongs on the relay fixed that intermittent problem. Somehow my radio is hooked into that circuit also and it would not work when the horn would not work. That became my check to see if the horn was going to work, just turn on the radio.
Tom

[john77]

Even jumping 86 t0 85 on the horn relay should not result in fried wires UNTIL the horn button was pushed. It may be that the wire from J-4 pin 85 is grounded all of the time. Probably at the steering wheel.
When I first got my car, the horn would work sometimes. I finally found that J-13 was not always operating. Cleaning the socket and prongs and slightly spreading the prongs on the relay fixed that intermittent problem. Somehow my radio is hooked into that circuit also and it would not work when the horn would not work. That became my check to see if the horn was going to work, just turn on the radio.
Tom

Ha, sorry Tom, I think my unbelievable idiocy is confusing the issue here.

I didn't hook 86 to 85 on the horn relay (although I thought I was). It turned out I hooked 86 to 85 on the relay for the fresh air fan by mistake, and the wires I fried were on that relay.

Should that have happened if the fresh air fan relay was wired correctly?

I'm yet to do any tests on the horn relay, but will certainly not be jumping 85 to 86.