This can't be good, brown wire meltdown

Cut the brown wire spades off and solder them together with a large crimp connector . They don't need to be unpluggable.



 
It looks like you have two red and two brown wires. I only have 2 brown wires and one red. What did you connect the large crimp connector to?
 
I prefer using a ground bus from HomeDepot or Lowe's. A few bucks. I think I choose to go with a 6 or 8 position. Using the extra positions, you can easily add additional feed wires to whatever you may need in the future.

Remove the first position lock down screw and use that position to bolt it in using the same bolt that holds down that worthless stock spade connector.

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If you want to retain a stock setup,

Get a set of new connectors from Matt Brannon.
I would crimp and solder the new connectors to the wire.
Also, remove the (mounted) union, clean and re-assemble as required.
 
Get a set of new connectors from Matt Brannon.
I would crimp and solder the new connectors to the wire.
Also, remove the (mounted) union, clean and re-assemble as required.

Do you mean put the same connectors that melted back on? Both brown plastic connectors pretty much melted away but the spade connectors are fine. I plug them back in once I cleaned off the burnt plastic. However the brown wires get pretty hot. I had the car running while working inside the car and smelled something burning but just figured it was the motor burning off some of the residue from sitting so long..............wrong. I'm searching brown Mod threads tonight, alittle confused because of the different options. Was this wire a result of not having the mode done?
 
The spade covers melted because the spade is no longer conducting properly where it is crimped to the wire, so resistance is high under load, which results in reduced current & increased temperatures. It will only get worse.

Mine has an extra wire which I ran to the battery (+) to reduce the load on other wires. The crimp eyelet isn't connected to anything, that's just what
had handy to join all the wires securely for soldering.
 
This can also happen if the slip-on tab connector gets corroded where it slips onto the tab, which is what it appears happened in this case. Periodic removal and reinstallation of tab connectors is the remedy.
 
It's a two-fold issue:

1. It was overly optimistic of those who designed the electrical system to have only one 10 ga wire running from the battery to supply power to the car's entire electrical system (minus starter motor power and most FI system power). And then when they selected that little four-way distribution block with spade connectors, they further tempted fate.

2. A marginal design is only going to deteriorate over 25-35-40 years of operation out in the real world of corrosion, oxidation, weather, and previous owner neglect.


Brown wire mods on later model cars usually revolve around adding additional conductor capacity to bring more power from the battery to the fuse and relay center. This could be as simple as a companion 10 ga wire directly from the battery and inserted with a 3/8" female spade connector into the unused fourth male spade in that factory 4-way connector block. Or it could be more, involving relocating the 4-way block to add additional circuits (al la Bob Brown), or involving eliminating the 4-way block entirely and doing the crimp-solder as Hussein did, or could be using a "buss bar" or distribution block concept as a central foundation for adding additional relayed circuits, as I did.
 
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