Electrical short to ground in 1970

[jerry]

Paul,

It will be a bridge to nowhere. I'll put some shrink tube over the end (I'm paranoid like that, haha) and leave it alone.

 

[DirtDonk]

That’s good enough. Keep it tucked out of harms way too, so nothing wears through the shrink tubing.
Or maybe if you have the choice, choose to use some extra thick shrink tube.

My personal preference is to repurpose it when possible.
Since it’s a 10 gauge wire connected, almost directly, albeit with an extra several feet of wire, to the battery, you can also utilize it as a secondary power source for other devices.
For example, a separate aux fuse panel, or a power stud under the hood.

 

[Oldtimer]

When I do my 3G install, I am going to:
disconnect BK wire from battery terminal of starter relay & insulate,
move BK/YL wire to battery terminal of starter relay,
add a 60 amp fuse/circuit breaker,
disconnect bullet connector, insulate BK/YL wire & BK wire ends.

This will leave a total of one bulkhead connector between battery and splice feeding Bronco under dash circuits, and leave a 10 gage BK wire in the harness for future use.

 

[jerry]

Update and a dumb question: I realized that I had left the old ignition switch in the accessory position when I was testing before with it plugged in.
For fun, I plugged in the replacement - still drawing the same amps in accessory position.
I did notice that the wire feeding the coil.. Is about 3.5 amps or so. So what I'm trying to understand is why the coil would be receving power in the accessory position? I didn't think there was accessory power under the hood?

Thanks again guys,

Jerry

 

[DirtDonk]

You are correct. With a properly working, and correctly wired ignition switch, there will be no power to the ignition in the ACC position.
Maybe a couple of adjacent wires somewhere in the harness melted, and are touching each other?

 

[DirtDonk]

Was the alternator disconnected during that last test? If not, try the test again after disconnecting the alternator.
Just to make sure there’s no feedback through the system.
The green with red wire is directly attached to the red with green wire at the back of the ignition switch. So, if there’s somehow some power coming through that direction, it could go to the ignition coil in any position. Even OFF.
So in theory, at least, if you are getting some backward feed of electricity, it shouldn’t matter what position the key is in. Have you tested everything with the key off? I assume yes, but figured I’d ask.
The other possibility with a factory harness is the brown wire on the starter relay/solenoid.
You can also disconnect that one very easily, just to retest and see if you’re still getting that draw with the key in the ACC position.
Here again though, it should happen no matter what position the key is in.

So both of those are longshots, but they are in fact, attached to the red with green wire.