I am in the middle of sorting through the wiring in the engine bay before engine install and have a smaller 16ga maybe red wire. It is always live. Any ideas?
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What year car? Always "on" even with the key off?
If your voltage regulator is defective, the (red on my '71) wire to the electric choke can become live with the keys out.
72 pre-L. It is a red wire coming through the main harness to the engine bay. It does not connect to the rear harness to tail lights, condenser fan etc. Yes, it is always live, even with the key out. The Engine, alt, volt reg etc. are not in the engine bay yet.
You might try pulling the fuses one by one and see if it goes dead.
Pulled the fuses and it cut out when pulling #12 (The last fuse in the block). Looking at PanteraPlace wiring diagrams I still cant see a location for it.
Could this be something that someone added in the past. Are you sure that this is an original wire? I can see no reason to have a full time live wire around the engine. Most of the Pantera wires had a heavy insulation. If this is an added wire it could have a thin insulation. Check your wires on fuse 12 to see if the same wire is there or if this wire has been spliced in. In later cars, fuse 12 was switched with the ignition and was not live.