Had an interesting experience today--a little fire going on under the steering column. Just driving along about 75 miles from home and I see smoke curling out from the steering column.
Luckily I'm near my office and do a 180 straight back to the hangar. With all necessary tools available I investigate the problem. I drop the steering column and see the problem is this big red #10 wire from ignition switch (which I think must come from the fuse panel) has melted the insulation and burned a couple of wires in the vicinity. And this melted wire is spliced into a same size #10 wire with a factory looking crimp. I separated and peeled away the melted insulation and determined the only wire damaged was the big red wire. Trimmed the wire and spliced in a temporary fix to get home. Driving home I noticed my amp guage did not do it's regular fluxuations jumping around like a mexican jumping bean. Amp guage is now quite steady showing a positive charge when driving and a slight negative chage when at idle. The crimped connection in the wire was a little corroded and I believe that's what caused the heat and eventually smoke. I read about everyone having the same problems with the amp meters jumping around and think maybe this splice might be the causes of some of the problems. I dunno if the splice was in the original car or not--just something to think about. I think this weekend I'll replace the wire from the switch to the fuse panel with no splices and maybe a fuse--anyone know what amperage is appropriate for a inline fuse for this wire?
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