Smoke from dash, wire from ignition switch fried

Got Coffee ?

Active member
So I was taking my daughter to school and we had smoke pouring into the cab. She pretty much had the door open and was ready to jump...I was able to get back home safely.

Upon taking the dash apart I noticed the culprit is a burned up thin White wire that come out of the ignition switch and into the wiring harness. It burned up so my arrows are pointing at the exposed copper. Any idea what this may be for?

9378
 

RBBailey

NAS-ROW Addict
Callsign: KF7KFZ
That really did get hot. Looks like the whole wire, not just a single spot. Ouch. Glad it didn't get worse!
 

Napalm00

Technical Excellence Contributor
What was the original year and engine , that will tell you what diagram to look at for wiring
 

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
You have glass fuses I assume? Are there any shorts at the fuse box? Either a larger fuse where it shouldn’t be or some other strange failure where a fuse didn’t protect a shorted circuit?
 

Uncle Douglas

Well-known member
Callsign: delete
What color trace on the wire ? Can see the solid white and started signal white with red so it's neither of those.
Once a wire insulation fire gets going, the fire is very difficult to put out. Driving it home was a bad call. Glad you made it, but view it as having used up one of your cat lives.
 
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Got Coffee ?

Active member
is it solid white or with a stripe ?


this post has your FFR specific diagram . https://www.defendersource.com/foru...stion-2-5-nad-to-200tdi-22898.html#post192436


I checked the standard defender diagram and the only solid white is a massive wire that feeds the entire fuse box, not the wire that burnt in your case.
It appears to be solid white, but it is pretty fried and hard to tell exactly. I may be able to pull back some of the tape around the wiring harness and find some good wire. But not massive at all.

Thanks for the diagram. I'll see if I can figure out where it leads.
 
I have a 90 that did the exact same thing. I didn't even drive mine. Burned a foot section of white wire behind the dash as soon as I turned the key. It's a 1988 that came with a 19j. Mine is a civilian model but appears to have extra wiring that covers LHD and RHD in the same harness. The fire cooked numerous wires in the main bundle. I ripped out the harness and am running a generic instead. We were both lucky. There was a moment mine didn't look like it would stop burning.
 

Got Coffee ?

Active member
I have a 90 that did the exact same thing. I didn't even drive mine. Burned a foot section of white wire behind the dash as soon as I turned the key. It's a 1988 that came with a 19j. Mine is a civilian model but appears to have extra wiring that covers LHD and RHD in the same harness. The fire cooked numerous wires in the main bundle. I ripped out the harness and am running a generic instead. We were both lucky. There was a moment mine didn't look like it would stop burning.
So just curious when you traced the wire back, did you consider only replacing the foot or so? Or did you just go for the entire harness? I am not sure I have the electrical knowledge to replace it all, although I may quickly learn if I am forced into it.

Glad we were both lucky. I will be investing in a fire extinguisher.
 

javelinadave

Administrator
Staff member
So just curious when you traced the wire back, did you consider only replacing the foot or so? Or did you just go for the entire harness? I am not sure I have the electrical knowledge to replace it all, although I may quickly learn if I am forced into it.

Glad we were both lucky. I will be investing in a fire extinguisher.
Do the next owner a favor and replace the entire wire length if possible. There is nothing worse than diving into an electrical problem to find a bunch of cut and pasted wires and trying to make heads or tails of the mess.
If you do splice in a replacement PLEASE use the correct crimp size.

s-l1000.jpg
 
My harness was damaged enough, I didn't want to dig in and bandaid the issues. I'm still not done running the replacement, but I'm doing an LS swap also. It'll be much more reliable and integrated when I'm done.
 

Got Coffee ?

Active member
So it appears two of the fuses have popped. Second from the bottom on the left and second from the top on the right. Still scratching my head a bit because there are 12 fuses, and the fuse diagram shows 20 things they support. Should I assume that the 3A are grouped, and the 7A's etc. are grouped? My assumption makes me think that the 15A fuse on the bottom right, is running 'stop' light and the fan since they are both 15A.

9453


Work travel has kept me from digging into the wire issue yet. Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions.
 

BarryO

Well-known member
Once a wire insulation fire gets going, the fire is very difficult to put out. Driving it home was a bad call. Glad you made it, but view it as having used up one of your cat lives.

Yep. It's like if the oil lamp comes on steady while you're driving. Pull over immediately; turn off ignition. Then for this, disconnect battery. If the smoke stops, call AAA and have it towed home.
 
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