Well, since my fan does not turn on by itself, I figured I would wire up a switch to turn it on and off when I start the car and shut it off. I didnt have any time to do it yesterday really, so I did a 2 minute job on it and ran the wires through the fender and door jam. The switch just sat on the console and this worked fine. I did not have the ground connected to it. Then today I had some spare time, so I ran a wire from the fuse box instead of the battery. This worked fine until I connected the ground. I connected it to one of the bolts that holds the shifter in. Is this bad? As soon as the power was connected the whole thing started smoking and everything melted. What should I do? I want the ground connected because if I dont the switch wont light up, so I wont know if it is on or not because I can not hear the fan from inside the car.

Sounds like a short circuit. Are you sure all the wires were connected correctly? Why wasn't there a fuse in there; you have to use a fuse...

There was a fuse when it was connected to the fuse box(the first time it melted) and when I had it connected to the batt. There was no fuse, but it had been connected like that with no problems for a day. It wasnt until I connected the ground wire that it melted both times.

Sounds like you had the source and the switched output mixed up on the switch. Then when the power went in the switch it went right out the ground and wha-la short circuit.

Could be wrong though...

sounds like you have the switch hooked to the positive side of teh circuite. While closing the switch completes the circuit and turns on the fan, hooking it to ground will generate a short. Next time, dont hook it to ground and it wond short.

They were all connected according to what the switch said was pos. neg. and ground. Everything was right, but for some reason when it was grounded the wires melted when it was on and off.