That "Burnt Caramel" smell

O

Old Zeb

Cam Tower Seepage
Yup, the infamous Brown Wire finally bit me driving home last night. (Of course at night -- won't fail unless the headlights are on!)

The smell got stronger over a few minutes and then the lights and electrical flickered a few times. Pulled under a street light and popped down the fuse & relay pod (1986) and received a nice puff of smoke! One of the brown wires had melted its insulation over an inch back from the lug. The connector shells were crumbled. The red and the other brown wire looked OK, but that heat will have ruined the temper on the lugs and they would never grip well again.

Once again, dumb luck was smiling on me as I had a bunch of tools AND a pack of wirenuts good for three #10 conductors. Inelegant having a huge baby-blue wirenut dangling off the fusepanel, but it will work until I come up with a better fix.

Lesson: Check The Brown Wire occasionally, as this did not happen all at once. Known weak spots need frequent attention.
 
Same expirience and req for advise

I had that "caramel smell" happen to me, in a way.
My main light switch flickered and signaled truble for the last month. Now it is dead.
I took it out and opened it up. Cleaned the contacts etc. but nothing helped.
I found out that there are only three contact bottons in the cover. I tried to show in the photos.
Is this the way it should be?
There are some 5 or 6 botton positions in that cover.
Is this right?
And where can I get a new switch? The car is 87 US.
Couldn't post pics yet, I have to work on my photobucket stuff.
The question still remains, are 3 bottons enough?
 
Late light switch

Herzel,

That sounds correct, 3 buttons on 2 contact parts that slide between 3 possible switch positions.

If I were you, I'd check the ignition switch. The ignition switch is where the power for the headlights comes from via the black wire, the parking lights should always have power to the light switch via the blue wire from the ignition switch.

Both of these get power through the ignition switch which has contacts that can overheat and melt their housing like I describe in this older post:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/12159/message/1149194698/

Hope this helps! :)
 
I did that almost immediately...

When I got my X, someone had done just that to mine, there was a large wire nut on those connections. I simply soldered mine all together.
 
Old Zep... huh... Well... since I don't really know who ya are...

... I'll just assume yur a new guy and know nothing of the Brown Wire Mod... found in 1.0 in the Best Of section.

Details upon request.
 
I'm known as Ol' Zeb, not Bright Zeb!

AKA Charles Osborne

Yeah, I've been lurking here for years and read all threads. Of course, my car won't ever have the problems that other cars have.

Denial -- it's not just an anagram of Denali !
 
Well... good to finally know ya, Charles...

Your text reminds me of our infamous Mike Middlestead... he writes a lot of "prose" for the lack of a better word... and your "denial" statement also fits his "tongue-in-cheek" personality.

HA!

I enjoy your posts... Since yur in the great old PNW... do you get together with some of the others?
 
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