boosted AWD

Hey guys, I bought a really rough 88 5.0 the other day and I was wondering if you could help with an electrical issue! The previous owner cut a lot of corners and I'm attempting to sort through the mess.

Almost nothing electrical in the car works, but most importantly, the tailights don't work.

the brake lights work but the tail/running lights do not come on. yes, i checked both filaments in the light bulb.

the headlights do work, but are the only lights that come on when you flip the switch. I was thinking headlight switch after searching the forums, but something else is happening...

3 wires in the steering column are getting very hot and burning when ever i turn the headlights on!

So with all of this evidence (pics below), does anyone have any ideas on what it could be?


I found this wire disconnected behind the headlight switch. the tail lights still did not work when I reconnected it temporarily to see:




These are the 3 wires that get hot when the headlights are turned on:




From farther away:




Oh, and I'm not sure which slot this orange wire goes in on the HAZARD SWITCH:

mjr46

you need to cut apart the melted wires, rewire and if the car has fog lights , rewire per service bulletin

boosted AWD

i will definitely do that but what caused the melting in the fi
rst place??

mattdel

Running the fog lights caused that melting. Do this as part of your rewire and that will solve that issue. You might need to replace both the headlight switch and multifunction switch on the column because of it.

As far as the other lights and stuff, if you need diagrams I can help.

boosted AWD

Who said anyhing about fog lights?? when i turn my head lights on, the tail lights do not come on and those three wires get really hot. i don't know if they're related.

And please, hook me up with some wiring diagrams! Thank you.

mjr46

like I said pull apart the melted wires, they are shorting together right now!!!!!!! if car has fog lights that are oem, they are the cause of the initial prob often....if you knew how the system were wired, that'd make things clear to you

boosted AWD

Okay so today I checked and cleaned up all the grounds in the engine bay and added another engine to frame ground strap.

I then replaced all the fuses with brand new fuses

then i re connected the broken blue wire on the headlight switch.

then i cut the 3 wires and tested them all to see what they are; then reconnected them.

1 of them is the power wire for the headlights, another one is the ground for the headlights. the 3rd seems to do nothing. It's not a ground, and it was not hot with the switch on or off??? The car does not have fog lamps.

Are there wiring diagrams that show what every single colored wire in the car is? where an I find them??

the taillights still do not come on with the headlights. the brake lights still work.