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Hi all. I am working on my tach and speedometer and with that cluster out have found a group of orange wires that travel from the fuse box toward the center console. One of these wires has apparently overheated at some point as it has melted its casing clear back to the fuse block. I know that all of these orange wires are linked together at this point before they head toward the center console. Can you help me identify them? If they're all linked together like this I don't really see the purpose of the individual wires themselves. They are certainly not carrying a separate signal.
Burnt portion can be seen near the bottom of the orange wires in the photo, mass connection can be seen toward the top.
Did you identify the wire that went back to the fuse pane and find the fuse that powers these orange wires??? I am betting that it is the COURTESY/CLOCK fuse.
You have to identify the circuit before you do anything so you know what this cluster of orange wires feed to.
These orange wires are a circuit that is HOT at all times and fused....meaning the key does not need to be in the ignition and turned on. That is what an orange wire will usually mean if you see one.
And letting us know exactly what year you are working on help us greatly instead of looking at your avatar and assuming that is the car you are working on.
It looks like someone tried to wire a high amperage accessory ,maybe an amp for a sound system, don't know. What they did was use a bunch of small wires tied together instead of one big wire.Bad IDEA.You're going to have to trace it out and get rid of it completely from wherever it starts to the end lucky you found it ,it looks like it was ready to start a fire!!
And letting us know exactly what year you are working on help us greatly instead of looking at your avatar and assuming that is the car you are working on.
It looks like someone tried to wire a high amperage accessory ,maybe an amp for a sound system, don't know. What they did was use a bunch of small wires tied together instead of one big wire.Bad IDEA.You're going to have to trace it out and get rid of it completely from wherever it starts to the end lucky you found it ,it looks like it was ready to start a fire!!
She's been messed with plenty by previous owners (as I have found over the years), but I would find it hard to believe that these wires aren't stock...
She's been messed with plenty by previous owners (as I have found over the years), but I would find it hard to believe that these wires aren't stock...
Not standard factory wiring , no factory would do that !!!!
Thus far I think DUB is leading me in the right direction. My shop manual shows the diagram below. I'm still thinking this wiring is factory. Although I don't understand why multiple wires instead of one large one to the junction. The one scorched orange wire is burned from the fuse box almost up to this junction. The copper of the wire is aged green, so I'm thinking it was exposed long ago.
The toasted wire does indeed carry power at all times. On this circuit all of my items are working except my vanity mirror and the driver's side courtesy light. I've cut and sealed the mirror wires (as the mirror lid was broken and sealed years ago) and the courtesy light was not present when I bought it (nor have I ever found the wiring for it).
I guess my plan is to cut the exposed wire and see what I lose- hopefully it goes to one of the above, and I'll simply seal it off and clean up.
Hard to believe anyone would do that,but I guess it was done at the factory I don't see any circuits in that system that would pull any amperage to burn a wire.Could be that the cigar lighter might have gotten stuck on and burned that wire.
Hard to believe anyone would do that,but I guess it was done at the factory I don't see any circuits in that system that would pull any amperage to burn a wire.Could be that the cigar lighter might have gotten stuck on and burned that wire.
My bet, from years of doing car stereos in my youth, someone jumped power off the cig lighter and overloaded the circuit. You would be amazed at the stuff we would find when a new owner would bring in car that someone before them had shoved in a wall mart head unit.
A lot of the replacement cigarette lighter elements are pure junk. The side to side movement is such that unless the element is inserted perfectly it will short to the socket and blow the fuse or in extreme cases, such as holding pressure on the element, the insulation on the wire can melt causing a fire hazard. A ceramic element as I've posted below will pretty much cure the problem.
As we can all agree that is factory splicing in the photo previously posted....and if not...trust me...that is a facotry splice.
Originally Posted by SciVette
Thus far I think DUB is leading me in the right direction. My shop manual shows the diagram below. I'm still thinking this wiring is factory. Although I don't understand why multiple wires instead of one large one to the junction. The one scorched orange wire is burned from the fuse box almost up to this junction. The copper of the wire is aged green, so I'm thinking it was exposed long ago.
If you carefully look at you wiring diagram. GM did use large gauge wire that is coming from the fuse to the splice area where all of the other wires connect. The 2.0 that is beside the orange wire coming from the fuse is the gauge. And in your manual they will tell you what 2.o means for gauge size in AWG. And how every wire that is coming off splice S260 is a smaller gauge wire as it is supposed to do.
Originally Posted by SciVette
The toasted wire does indeed carry power at all times. On this circuit all of my items are working except my vanity mirror and the driver's side courtesy light. I've cut and sealed the mirror wires (as the mirror lid was broken and sealed years ago) and the courtesy light was not present when I bought it (nor have I ever found the wiring for it).
I guess my plan is to cut the exposed wire and see what I lose- hopefully it goes to one of the above, and I'll simply seal it off and clean up.
Hopefully when you cut that burnt wire out of the splice you have everything that is normally working...work for you.
Chevy Purchasing Dept must have got a really great deal on orange wire. That is a really weird splice joint. I was dead-wrong about it not being stock; but it's still a very poor electrical circuit.
Just to wrap this thread up… I snipped the burned/exposed wire last night. As expected I lost none of my courtesy lights or other items shown in the diagram. As I've already removed the driver side courtesy light and lighted vanity mirror from this circuit (and don't power anything through the lighter) I'm not concerned with the load on the remainder. I'm going to strip out the burnt wire and re-wrap the bundle with the silicon self-sealing tape.
You should have no concerns on the load on that circuit. It could have occurred due to someone before you did some messing around and bypassed the fuse with a jumper wire and what happened was due to the circuit is not protected.
If I posted the photos of the stuff I see when I work on these cars...it would make many of you shake your head like I often times do....and ask..."What were they thinking"....and I reply to myself...'They weren't thinking". That is the problem.
Glad to read that you got it repaired to your liking.
FYI: On solder splice joints like that ...make sure that you feel all the way around the splice and feel for any spikes of solder that are sharp and poking outwards. The reason is that these spikes of solder can eventually poke through the tape or whatever and then possibly make contact with a ground or another wire in the bunch and you are back in there again dealing with it.
08-26-2017, 06:16 PM
ID group of orange wires behind dash
