I smoked my electrical system yesterday. The plastic ring that covers the steering rag joint rode up the shaft facilitating a ****** and stretch mission that caused a pretty serious short. The joint grabbed a 10-12 gage red wire that seems to route to the ignition switch. The same bundle contains two wires that feed the headlight switch. They both feed through a grommet down low under the steering column.

When the short occurred smoke came out of the steering column. My thought is the grease in the bearings caused the smoke because there is no apparent damage to the wires of the turn signal cam/switch nor the windshield wiper switch.

No noticeable damage to the switches connected to the steering column either.

The car started fine (so did my heart after I had grabbed the fire extinguisher from its mount). During the drive home the stereo kept resetting.

After repairing (spliced in good 10 gage wire) the short I had headlights. Started the car, lights/dome and stereo went out. Revved the motor, they came back on. Hit the high beams and they all went out again. Rev once, nothing... rev a couple times they all come back. Shut down with lights on, start again... everything works. Hit the horn and it goes out again. I guess you get the idea...

The heater/AC, power windows, locks, brake lights, turn signals all work. The horn, radio, headlights, parking lights, dome light and dash lights work intermittently. Please help.

 

double check your wires you repaired,you may have missed one or have a weak connection,sounds like your power is intermittenly being robbed from the other components.good luck

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I have determined that the power flows from under the dash to a solenoid by the horns that powers up the headlights (I think).

I am unable to coax the lights to come back on. I don't have door locks either so it appears that everything that receives constant power now doesn't receive any at all. the source wire under the dash that runs to the solenoid has no current.

I drove it to work and back today without any other problems. I guess my car will be a fair weather and daylight only car...

I guess tomorrow I’ll replace the 30 Amp ACC breaker and then begin tracing wires…

 

be sure to check all the main fuses and any fuse links you may have.good luck.

 

Not a single fuse blown. I have narrowed it down to the suspect wire terminal at the bulkhead connector - G5 Power Distribution. Seems there should be a fusible link for it but my wiring diagram doesn't seem to indicate so. The links running from my battery feed the fans and one link into the monstrous 1" bundle that runs to the bulkhead connector but I can't find the wire in that bundle.

 

I found the culprit. The fusible link for the accessories is located at the starter solinoid. My wiring diagrams were practically useless so I assumed that the link would be at the battery. The power leads from the battery were all fine.

My recommendation, get a good shop manual. A guy had posted scans of his 1985 Camaro shop service manual wiring diagrams and they showed me the error of my way.

I ordered my manuals from:

http://www.helminc.com/helm/homepage.asp

$81.50 (includes shipping/handling) I also get both electrical diagram manuals.