Bad News/Good News

[chefk85]

Ok guys. this fine evening I was driving home and upon pulling into my driveway I started to hear a crackling sound. looked over and noticed my cigarette lighter was pushed in for some reason(maybe I bumped it). anyhow I ripped it out and saw some sparking and arcing, smoke and everything associated with electrical fire(knew I smelled something funny). anyhow I immediately grabbed the hose(closest thing to me and no fire ext.) and lightly doused the cig bezel and receptacle. I then noticed it coming up from the fuse block and doused it a little too(doh) as the wires coming out of the cig fuse were melting. got some pliers and got the battery terminals off and doused the wires going to the cig fuse in the engine compartment. good news is the truck didn't burn to the ground. I have unhooked the cig lighter at the bezel and fuse block and pos. batt. terminal. the truck still starts and drives. WTF HAPPENED

[chefk85]

so it appears that I only burned that particular wire crispy and the fuse block where the cig. fuse goes. should there have been a wire ran from the battery to the fuse panel in the first place or is this someone in a hurry or not knowing what theyre doing? should I check anything else before I continue to drive it? maybe pull fuse panel and make sure nothing else burned up? also has anyone seen this before? I'm sure glad it didn't burn up and I was in my driveway where I could put it out.

[Mmorgan32]

I would go through everything. I had this happen once in my mustang but it was my taillights. Gotta love ford wiring lol. You just never know with 40 year old wiring better to be safe than sorry

[chefk85]

yeah I'm going to delete that circuit completely. entire wire stripped from engine comp. to under the dash. pull fuse panel and make sure it didn't melt anything behind it/replace. inspect wire path through the looms to make sure no other wires have melted together and retape/loom the wires. should be good after that? am I forgetting anything?

Thanks in advance for your wealth of knowledge,
Chefk85

[Mmorgan32]

If it were me I'd go through my whole dash. When I buy an old car/ truck that's one of the first things I look at, what wiring was hacked up, what's added what's missing, what looks new what looks bad. Spend a few hours and go through it all. U just never know. If you want the lighter just replace the whole circuit. Classic industries sells all the wiring harnesses and even the little random ones. Not saying u have to reword your whole truck just if u have something that looks bad I'd replace it

[chefk85]

I cant seem to find a used/new original replacement fuse block anywhere online. Does anyone know where you can or if you can buy one? id rather replace it so I can hook up another evil cigarette lighter and do it right. the wiring he used was 10 or 12 guage which seems like way overkill to me and I'm guessing his inline fuse was also too big or it would've popped and saved me this trouble. oh well. live and learn. new fuse panel is in order though. ideas?

thanks,
chefk85

[Mmorgan32]

Did u try classic industries? I desired my entire old truck with factory replacements from them. It was a few years ago tho

[chefk85]

I will check it out. I just did a google search and it was filled with ebay links to the wrong era and forums of people wanting diagrams. thanks a lot. this whole thing has me freaked out a bit but you have calmed my nerves some. I will update tomorrow and Saturday with what I have found under the dash. I think the thing that saved me most is the PO had the wire loosely tucked away and by itself under the dash. under the hood is a little different but much easier to work with if I find other burned wires.

thanks,
chefk85 <------AHH FIRE!

[Mmorgan32]

Just make sure it's not all hacked up and looking like a rats nest. Check connections and feel them to make sure they ain't hot

[In The Ten Ring]

And get a fire extinguisher!

[dfwright]

Home Depot has first alert tundra aerosol spray fire extinguishers that are the size of a can of spray paint. I fortunately haven't needed to test one out, but I bought a few to drop in the glovebox on my cars.

[chefk85]

So this morning I removed the burnt wire..didn't do too much damage along its path however I have no power to anything now. 12v at battery. the wire that ran to the cig fuse location was soldered together with a couple other wires. the cig fuse location is toast. I am not good at electrical. I am going to need some help on this one guys. this is my daily driver. I have a couple days off from work to get it figured out. I will post pics and maybe you guys could help me run down the issue and get it fixed. if you cant understand wiring in pictures I will provide an explanation.

thanks,
chefk85

[jeffahart]

I'm doing a complete rewire this weekend using a AAW classic update from MCB Matt. I've had one fire in the truck already. Since I've decided to keep the truck I don't want to lose a bunch of bucks from a fire. With a good harness from AAW and support from MCB Matt, It should be a fairly straight forward and low cost upgrade. With the assortment of harness available these days I would not take a chance of burning up. It's just a function of spending the time!

[centuryhouse]

Originally Posted by Mmorgan32

I would go through everything. I had this happen once in my mustang but it was my taillights. Gotta love ford wiring lol. You just never know with 40 year old wiring better to be safe than sorry

Ha, me too! My 67 Mustang. A can of paint in the trunk had pinched/shorted out the taillight wire and....lots of smoke under the dash eventually. Fun times.

[chefk85]

I haven't traced it down completely yet but I'm starting to think the wire that burned up was somehow connected with the ignition wires and that's why once I cut them out of the engine compartment I suddenly have no power. minutes after I had the fire out I was able to start the truck and park it in the driveway properly. so I had power now I don't.

[BrianG]

From what I see, you need a new Under Hood (Engine Compartment) Wiring Harness. Maybe should also consider an under dash harness while you are at it. I highly recomment the American AutoWire Classic update serious becuase it comes with an updated fuse block assembly. You can also just get new versions of what you have, or should be ableto find a decent used one from someone who has upgraded.... All that being said, you mentioned that this is your daily driver and you need to get it back on the road in the next couple of days. Hopefully we can help you out and you can look into upgrading and doing it 'right' later when you have time.

I would definitely start by replacing that wire that is burn. You will probably have to replace the fusable link (do some searches on how to do that and with what material) unless there is enough good wire after it to solder on a new wire. The fuse box should come off from inside the cab with a couple of small bolts. Then you should be able to remove the engine side with the single bolt in the middle. That wire looks like its burnt right up to the end. Its hard to say what things will look like when you take it off. Hopefully, you'll be able to find a way to splice it to make it work and get a connection back to the fuse block. When you are able to do that, you should have power and should be able to operate the truck again. I probably wouldn't make this patch a permanent fix. It's too likely to end up giving you issues. If you use the right size wire and seal things up really good, it shoud get you on the road again.

Also, I think one of your pics is of a fusable link for the headlights. I can't tell for sure. I'm not really sure if anything is wrong there. If not just cover that all up again really good. I'd do that before you try starting the truck so you don't end up shorting anything out.

[chefk85]

First thanks for the great info. Love this site and you guys. I will start by replacing that wire and solder the conections to it where they should be. I have the panel off inside the truck and the fire has burned through the metal connection on the back of the fuse panel between the cig and the fuse slot next to it. will this cut power to where it needs to be? I cant remember off the top of my head what it was connected with. I will make sure there are no wires melted together and fingers crossed it will fire up. I'm a little unsure whether I can tackle a complete harness install, but I have good ties with a few different shops in my area and one guy quoted me a day/day and a half to put the new one in. the painless kit looks like 500 and change for the kit and around 1000 for labor. I do agree with putting a whole new harness in as I don't know what the PO has done and id sure be upset if the truck burned to the ground. I will post some more pics tomorrow of the back of the fuse panel and somne close ups of what you think is a fusible link and we can go from there.

thanks a million,
chefk85

[chefk85]

Ok guys. so I have the necessary materials(I think) for my wiring repair. turns out there was a fusible link but I according to a wiring diagram I dug up off of this site it was in the wrong place and it didn't melt through. the diagram shows the fusible link from the pos. batt. terminal to the junction block on the fender. your hot should run from the junction block to the back of the fuse panel with a few splices along the way to feed power to under the hood accessories. the way it was wired in my truck was a solid hot from the pos batt terminal to the junction block and a fusible link from the junction block connected to the main hot that runs to the fuse panel. could this be why it didn't pop? the solid lead from the pos batt to the junction block didn't even heat up and the fusible link burned most of its insulation off but never melted through. I appreciate your knowledge and patience in helping me fix this issue.

thanks again,
chefk85

[chefk85]

I have the wiring ready to go into the bulkhead connector on the firewall. question is how do I get the old wire out to put the new one in? it looks as if the blade on the inside doesn't come out and if it does how so? could I just splice it into that dmaged wire and wrap it up really good?

[ptc]

Man I wish I was closer to all you guys needing wiring work....

Dont overkill anything - theres really no need for that and you dont need to rewire your entire truck because 1 wire overloaded and burned.

Your wire burned because it wasnt fused - When it is plugged into the end of the fuse holder like that it is connected directly to 12v power and there is no rating on the amperage supplied as in a fused circuit. All wires are protected by FUSES in a 12v system. If you bypass the fuse for ANY SIZE WIRE it is going to get the full amperage of the system (about 55-60 amps) and if it shorts out its gonna burn any wire smaller than about a #6 gauge copper wire that is rated for 65 amps continuous. So thats why all systems are fused.

Most of your 12v accessory circuits are from 3- 7 amps and use a 16-18 gauge copper wire for them. They should all be fused at NO GREATER than 7 amps and this will protect a wire for 25 feet+, the entire length of the truck.

For the firewall plug - find a Delco supplier that has the spade connectors of the same size. use a micro screwdriver to remove it - there should be a tiny locking tab that holds it into the plug. Remove the old wire from the harness , check to see if it burnt any other wires along the way, replace it all and you'll be good to go again.

edit: for fusible link, replace the old style fuse link with a resettable circuit breaker style. then you can never get stranded by an issue that may burn it up. They sell them in marine shops, West Marine etc. - you never wan to get stranded out on an ocean right?

[BrianG]

You don't have much there to try to splice in to. I'd try to remove the spade and find a new one to attach to your new wire. As "ptc" (previous post) mentioned, you can use a micro sized screwdriver to remove the spade terminal. To do this, you work from the inside with the screwdriver to release a very small holding tab and then the wire will pull out from the outside (the wire side, or in your case the burnt side).

[chefk85]

UPDATE:----Thanks for all of your help guys. Got her put back together for now. new harness will be in the works but probably not until next spring. Atleast shes back on the road!

Thanks again,
chekf85

[BrianG]

Awesome! Thanks for the update. I would recommend one last thing and that would be to carry a fire extinguisher just in case this happens again and ends up worse.

[MARKDTN]

Originally Posted by chefk85

I have the wiring ready to go into the bulkhead connector on the firewall. question is how do I get the old wire out to put the new one in? it looks as if the blade on the inside doesn't come out and if it does how so? could I just splice it into that dmaged wire and wrap it up really good?

You squeeze the terminal together from the terminal side and pull it out the other side. Then get a new Type 56 male spade from a good parts store and replace. If you Google "type 56 terminals" you will see better how they come out. I would not splice that.

[Orange Crate]

Type 56 terminals are crimp type terminals, but I think for just one wire you could get away with using some needle nose pliers to fold over the crimp tabs. I just installed an AAW harness in my 72 and bought a ratcheting crimper that works perfectly on single wire terminals. On the double wire terminals (requires a special crimper) I used the needle nose pliers and then soldered the terminal also. For a high amp draw like the cigarette lighter I think I would crimp and solder.