Wire/harness questions

[aslanefe 333]

Got couple wiring questions.

1. The insulation of the brown wire that goes to I terminal of the starer selonoid  on my car has been spliced by previous owner as the insulation has melted. The original brown wire with molten insulation is still in the engine side of the wire loom. The splice is from selonoid to the firewall connector and on the inside, from the firewall connector to about 15 inches in the loom of the under dash harness. Is there an other reason why the brown wire would get hot and melt the insulation besides it ishorted at about 15 inches?

2. The black/red wire that runs from fuse 1 to reverse light switch provides power to the reverse lights. Fuse 1 has a  red wire coming out of it. Where  does the black/red wire connect to the red wire? Approximately how many inches from the fuse block is this connection?

Thanks in advance.

[Midlife 814]

1. No...I've never really seen this other than chafing against the metal chassis.

2. There's an OEM splice just to the right of where the ignition and wiper switch wires break out of the underdash harness.  It's buried under the tape.

[aslanefe 333]

15 minutes ago, Midlife said:

1. No...I've never really seen this other than chafing against the metal chassis.

2. There's an OEM splice just to the right of where the ignition and wiper switch wires break out of the underdash harness.  It's buried under the tape.

Thanks for the answers. By coincidence the brown wire was running at the outside of the loom in the engine side, by the tape; not in the middle of the loom. So it even melted the tape wrapped around the harness.

When you say right, follow the wires starting from fuse block, pass the ignition and wiper break out, am I correct?

[aslanefe 333]

One more question.

My reverse lights don't work. Switch is good. When i disconnect the switch and check the wires going to switch (reverse lights hooked up with good bulbs), I have ground on one wire with ignition on and off and on the other wire, no power or ground when ignition is off but get ground with ignition on instead of power. Any reasons for this besides someone changing the connection to PO test circuit side of ignition switch instead of fuse 1?

[danno 128]

That brown wire provides full voltage to the ignition coil during start.  I cannot imagine what would have fried this other than it getting connected to ground when power was on. The wire could be completely burnt open.  The car will probably start and run without it,  it helps start the car when it is cold or if plugs are old by providing a hotter spark while cranking the engine.  It could have shorted to the chassis somewhere along it.  That wire goes through the main connector block by the fuseblock and then to the engine harness.  You might check for continuity between the end of this wire at the solenoid and the ignition coil.  It should be under 10 ohms. 

Get a piece of wire, and connect one end to the +12 volts on the battery.  with the switch to the tranny disconnected, touch the other end to the wire to the connector that  goes through the firewall.  When you connect 12 volts to one of those wires, you should get the backup lights to work.  The turn signals go to the same fuse, do they also work fine? 

 

[danno 128]

The second paragraph above is about your reverse light.  Let us know what you find. 

[Midlife 814]

To the right means towards the passenger side.  Radio power, wiper return power, and backup lights, along with flasher power is typically powered up by the red wire coming from the fuse box.  If none of these work, I would suspect the fuse.  If only one doesn't work, then a busted wire, switch, or something similar is going on.

[aslanefe 333]

8 hours ago, danno said:

The second paragraph above is about your reverse light.  Let us know what you find. 

The molten part of the brown wire has already been spliced with new wire previously, so I have 12 volts to coil during start function.

Turn signals work, wiper works, that is why I am chasing the black/red wire towards the fuse block from the switch to find out why I get groumd on both wires instead of 12 volts in one and ground on other when ignition is on. One wire should be ground as there are bulbs in the sockets and a common ground wire for all rear lights connected to the filler neck area but the other wire should be 12 volts so the light will come on. When I remove the connectors in the trunk drop of and apply power and ground, the lights come on. My problem should be between the firewall plug (to the switch) and the connectors to the back up lights in the trunk drop ofs.

[aslanefe 333]

10 minutes ago, Midlife said:

To the right means towards the passenger side.  Radio power, wiper return power, and backup lights, along with flasher power is typically powered up by the red wire coming from the fuse box.  If none of these work, I would suspect the fuse.  If only one doesn't work, then a busted wire, switch, or something similar is going on.

Thanks, I start following the black/red wires from passenger side. 

[aslanefe 333]

To close the loop on reverse lights; previous owner put in 1157 bulb instead of 1142 in one of the lights, that was creating the problem. Glad I didn't have to unwrap the whole harness (which still has the original stickers on it) just a few inches to reach the area Midlife pointed to.