GTA88

Hi,

I have an 88 GTA.

I'm investigating a 20 amp fuse blowing. Its the radio and horn fuse.

I dropped the steering column and I can see a melted orange wire which snaps into a connector on the ignition switch.
The orange wire was touching a part of the frame, which might explain the fuse blowing.

Now the questions :

1. Are these connectors the kind that you squeeze in order to remove? I noticed that one of the other connectors on the Ign Sw is cracked and I don't want to crack another one.

2. The melted orange wire had stuck to a couple wires next to it, but I was able to separate the stuck wires without exposing any copper. The melted wire actually has some copper exposed and it goes into the loom long with a bunch of other wires. What are the chances that inside the loom I have "copper on copper" from the melted wire onto another wire(s) ? Ugh. I'd hate to replace the whole loom.

3. Where does this loom go ? I could just cut the orange wire and run another wire along the outside of the loom to wherever it is supposed to go, I guess. I haven't removed the dash yet. Maybe that's my next step.

4. What does this orange wire from the ign sw feed? I had a fusible link at the starter blowing out before I got this 20 amp fuse blowing. If I knew what the orange wire went to I could check that part for a short.


5. Could the ign sw be bad, and keep sending current through the orange wire after starting is done, and overheat it?




Thanks

SHIFFS

you found the reson why the fuse is blowing, now you must find out why the insulation melted off. poss. chafing led to short witch melted insulation off, in the breif time before it blew the fuse. find out why the insulation burnt off and you probasble can make a good educated guess as to if it keeps going down the harness. can you visialy see the insulation burnt as it goes into the loom? if not section in a new peice of wire put in a new fuse and see what happens. see if you can just splice in the new wire without dissconecting the connector. if not get a flashlight up there and figure out how to get it loose. if the insulation is burnt going into the harness than the eisiest thing to do would probably be what you sayed to run a wire NICELY outside the harness. get yourself a good wiring diagram to figure out where it goes to.

GTA88

Yes, the melted wire is still melted when it goes into the loom. It was rubbing against a metal frame, so I moved it away from the frame, put a new fuse in, and connected the battery. The fuse blew after about 2 seconds...

What a pita. I still don't know what switch the orange wire is going to on the steering column. It goes into a connector on top of the steering col, but it's not the ignition switch, as I thought. I think it is the dimmer switch. But the wiring diagram in my Chilton's doesn't excactly match the color of wires coming out of the connector. I have 2 small green wires, one brown wire, the big orange wire, and one other wire which I forget now, coming out of the connector next to the ignition sw. I think the ignition switch is right in front of the dimmer switch, because it has 2 red wires and one yellow, which matches the Chilton's wiring diagram for ign sw.

geez, maybe I'll take out the dash and see what's in there.

Petes 84Z28

Melted wires....this doesn't sound good.
The radio calls for only a 10A fuse; and the horn runs of the 20A CTSY fuse.
Your other questions, in order...

1)The black connector has two tabs on one side holding it into the switch; push them toward the wires and pull straight out. The blue connector also has two tabs on opposing corners, and is partly held in by the black one. Remove black first then blue - install in reverse order.

2)It's very possible the wire melted it's entire length, inside the loom as well. You might be lucky if the wire melted only between the ign switch and the point where the wire contacted the metal frame.

3)That leg of the loom runs into another main loom, which contains most of the underdash wiring from the bulkhead connector on the firewall, to the ECM on the passenger side of the dash. Several connectors to the left of the drivers feet go to the rest of the body (taillights, dome light, etc.)

4) The orange wire runs from the ignition switch directly to the fuse panel where it supplies power in the 'RUN' position to the AC blower fuse and power window circuit breaker.

5) The excess current that has been flowing through the ign switch likely has done it any good...I'd replace it while you have things torn down to avoid possible future problems.

We'll get this solved sooner or later

Pete