[dshaff36]

Originally Posted by xxvicarious Fired it up, letting it warm up. Turned on the lights, all was working find. Theeeen my gauge cluster lights cut out, and smoke starts billowing from the driver's side of my dashboard... wtf? Something obviously got hot enough to literally catch on fire....That was a lotttttt of smoke. Call it stupid, but instead of having my NEWLY PAINTED FOXBODY (Yea, it just got painted today) burn to the ground, I grabbed the hose, and jammed a few bursts of water up by the headlight switch. Heard a sizzle, and the smoke eventually cleared out of the car. W......T......F? Im gonna take a look at the damage tomarrow morning, but if anyone knows what can cause this right off hand, please. FILL ME IN.

I don't see anywhere where the OP asks to hear everyones fire stories! (although I enjoy reading them) I'm sure carious would appreciate it if everybody focused more on figuring out what went wrong in his situation. So lets try to get back on track a little guys.

For now, I am thinking it is a physical problem with either the contacts or a wire itself. If I can see some pictures of which wires are mostly melted and the back of the cluster I would be able to tell more.

[xxvicarious]

It fired right up this morning. I flicked the headlight switch real quick. All the lights are working, except the cluster lights of course. And no fire. The inside of my car smells like a meth lab, now. Awesome

Pic isnt working. When I dropped the cover, one of the fuses was melted. Found a washer jammed where a fuse should go. Its corroded in, and wont come out. Awesome

[xxvicarious]

Just pulled the headlight switch.

Wires:

Light brown/tan with white stripe = Melted.
Light blue with red stripe = a little melted.

Im GUESSING the brown/white is to the gauge cluster lights.
And Im GUESSING Blue/Red is to the running lights. It LOOKED like
they were off when I pulled the blue wire out. But theyre so dim to
begin with, its hard to tell, even mashing my face against the taillight
with a hood over my head.

Ill see if I can find out what they actually are. The switch seems to be fine.
No corrosion, a little dusty. MY GUESSSSS would be: for some reason, the fuse
went to blow. What puzzles me is one of the fuses, the plastic melted off, but it
didnt blow. The little wire inside the fuse is still intact.

Im puzzled. I hate wiring and electronics.

[xxvicarious]

Just looked at the back of the fuse box. Everything involving lighting is just toast. I dont know how my headlights and running lights are still working, the wires are fried and exposed. Is there any way to wire headlights and running lights to a switch? I have to drive at night, I really dont have an option or the patience to rewire everything. fml.

[Rascus]

I would say do it the right way now, and avoid putting yourself in the same situation (fire!) later...

[dshaff36]

Thats a lot to deal with, I'm sorry man. I don't understand how so many different things would go wrong at the same time unless you were sending a lot of extra voltage through the system. That sounds like something that probably needs to be looked at by someone who really knows a lot about the car's wiring. It would be hard to tell what is wrong without seeing it in person. I say take it to a shop and get them to look at it and fix it in a way that it won't happen again. Sorry I couldn't be of anymore help!

[95tbirdv8]

I agree, take it to someone who knows what there doing, but it might get costy if they rewire the whole thing.

[xxvicarious]

If you knew where I lived, you'd know Im probably better off doing it by myself, dead serious. If someone could just tell me which wire out of the three wires connected to the low beams is power(needing a 12 volt source to it to power the light), that would be more helpful than you know (color of the wire, and color of the stripe). Im just gonna have to wire it to a switch, and stick a 20 amp fuse in a break somewhere for now, until I can afford a Painless Wiring Kit. Just that
one answer would help so much.

[FastStang91Lx]

Buy an electrical meter. That will answer all your questions for you. Even a 10 dollar cheap one will work just fine.

[HMERacing]

Originally Posted by FastStang91Lx Buy an electrical meter. That will answer all your questions for you. Even a 10 dollar cheap one will work just fine.

+1

I rewired my 89 myself. I reused part of the lighting harnesses, stripping them down to just the wires nec. The rest I made a Fused Relay panel and used a Painless switch panel. It was time consuming but pretty simple.

I Rewired headlights hi/lo, turn signals, Tail lights/ brakelights, reverse lights, parking lights, lic. plate light, Cluster lights, dimmer switch, cluster turn signal lights and high beam indicator, voltage guage and a few others.

I used my Multimeter and a couple wiring diagrams for reference. The diagrams I found did not match up perfectly to my harness but it was a little help.

Good luck!