Hot/Cold Status of Ignition Switch Wires

[76ChevyP30]

Ok,

I have spent several hours diagnosing and fixing problems on my rig thanks to the assistance from people on this board. However, I still have a couple questions. The brown 12 guage wire that goes to my ignition is always hot, which means that the also-attached brown and white 20 guage alternator exciter (field) wire that attaches to the bulkhead connector and then to a 16 guage all-brown wire is always hot as well. Is that the way it was designed? If so, that means my brown and white resistor wire is always hot and always warm...and I mean it is very obviously warm and heats up the whole cluster of wires that go to the ignition switch. The weird thing is that it is the ACC circuit if I read my wiring diagram correctly so it shouldn't be hot until I switch the ignition to ACC...or so I thought?

An awesome board,

Philip
1976 P30 Chevy chassis (motorhome) 350/400TH

[THE "10" SILVERADO]

Might ask this in the electrical section. Not as many people over there but the one's there are really smart at wiring.

[ray_mcavoy]

Hi Philip,

You're reading the wiring diagram correctly. That 12ga brown wire is an ACC circuit and should only be live with the ignition switch in the "run" and "accessory" positions.

I'd think the most likely cause for the ACC circuit to be staying live all the time would be a bad ignition switch that's not switching that circuit off when it's supposed to.

[76ChevyP30]

Thanks guys, the switch was exactly what I suspected. I'll change it out. Don't want any fires