melting wires

Aye.
The first Model A I had (actually an AA) and as a teenager, burned up the wiring including the ammeter. Bought a whole new harness from JC Whitney and re-wired the whole truck. A real time consuming ordeal (no wiring diagrams to go by back then), but well worth the effort. Looked like nothing ever happened when I got thru with it.
 
Aye, The new harness are made to fit the car nicely and neatly, and will make trouble shooting problems in the future much easier.
 
thanks for all your help everyone, i really appreciate the response. lots of good ideas, and solutions. i think a new harness is in the works(the ayes have it), but we just want to get the thing turned over, so i think we're going to keep the slapdash wiring for the moment. i'm glad my idea that it might be the brake light switch was not way off. thank you tom for the procedure for checking it. i'll post our solution.
 
I am with Fred K #18. An inline fuse for $1 would beat having to keep replacing all of those burnt wires until you figure out the problem. I would use the homemade wiring harness until the components are sorted out. No need to burn up a new $75 reproduction harness IMO. Also note that you can wire the engine to run and drive without having any of the lights wired up.
 
exactly. we are taking all unnecessary electrics out of the equasion to start it, then deal with the rest later. also, i've not seen them mentioned on the threads, but we've been using "mac's" out of the buffalo area for our parts. very reasonable prices and quick turnaround for what it's worth.
 
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I'm with those recommending getting a stock harness but I would find the short first. No future in burning up a good harness. Although a fuse would protect the wire it would be of no help finding the short. A meter or test light is the best course of action. You could disconnect the wire from the switch to confirm it's the problem. Find the short, repair it, then replace the harness.
 
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