What's frying my wires?

[Rippin]

Ok, I Recently had a wire melt down in my '68 GTX. The ignition switch had been giving me warning signs...had to jiggle sometimes, etc and it finally just started smoking a bit as I was driving. Got it shut down and started replacing items.

Thus far, I have replaced the ignition cylinder (key tumbler) as well as outer ignition terminal. Also, replaced completed dash harness. All seemed well, the car started and ran 6 or so times and then yesterday it would start and immediately stall/shut down. I thought it was a fluke, tried again, same thing but now could smell and hear frying wires!! Again, appears to be from ignition switch area???

What the heck else could it be???

Thanks

 

[Hemi Rebel]

You need to isolate what circuit is having the issue and go from there. Do you have a wiring diagram?

 

[WileE]

Melting wires is due to amperage. Too much flow will cause overheating of wires. I suspect a ground that should not be there.

 

[70rr-brian]

Ok, I Recently had a wire melt down in my '68 GTX. The ignition switch had been giving me warning signs...had to jiggle sometimes, etc and it finally just started smoking a bit as I was driving. Got it shut down and started replacing items.

Thus far, I have replaced the ignition cylinder (key tumbler) as well as outer ignition terminal. Also, replaced completed dash harness. All seemed well, the car started and ran 6 or so times and then yesterday it would start and immediately stall/shut down. I thought it was a fluke, tried again, same thing but now could smell and hear frying wires!! Again, appears to be from ignition switch area???

What the heck else could it be???

Thanks

When you say dash harness... could you be more specific? Is your ammeter still connected or have you disabled that? Did you check the bulkhead connector for any funny business going on inside that?

As wilerrobby suggested you probably have a wire with current touching ground somewhere...it should be as easy as tracing the burnt wire to its source. Could be in the bulkhead but either way you would think a fuse would blow before sizzling wires. Sounds like you have some digging to do. Best of luck...electrical problems suck.

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

90% of the time it's the ammeter:grommit:

 

[Rippin]

Thanks guys. Yes, amp meter is hooked up and appears to be functioning. What really gets me is the random nature of it...which is why I keep circling back to ignition switch...plus that appears to be about where smoke comes from. The bulkhead is my other thought. The dash harness was the full deal, included ignition, fuse box and bulkhead. However, other side of bulkhead is old, especially bottom row looks rough. I have NOS ignition switch arriving but need to figure out some testing first.

Thoughts? Thanks for the help thus far.

 

[A383Wing]

my voltage regulator shorted out one year..fried the wire from ignition switch through the harness out to the regulator...car died, would not start....

replaced regulator, and did surgery to replace the one wire through harness.

after fix, I installed a fuse between regulator & firewall...the original cars have no protection for this circuit

Bryan