[Stevepro]

Hi, As John has suggested the small blue black wire is most likely the loom which powers all of the dash (gauges) lights and the ash tray light. A short somewhere, maybe behind the dash, has probably caused the insulation on the loom to melt. I have had this issue myself.

If you carefully pop all of the gauges out of the dash (all wiring still attached) you should be able to systematically disconnect and remove the complete blue/black loom. There is an insulated spade connector on one end of this loom which plugs into a connection in the main loom. Once all of the individual connections to gauges etc have been removed, you can unplug the spade connector and remove the blue black loom complete. If too damaged, use as a pattern to make a new loom complete or repair the damaged bits of the existing loom. Not as hard as it sounds. Good luck with that. Cheers, Stevepro