Need help identifying fried idiot light wire
 

Today I found a wire that connects to the alternator idiot light in the oil gauge on my fathers' 1983 911 SC that doesn't look too healthy (see attached picture, black/red wire).
I just started running the engine in, and the car was bought with a broken engine, so I'm ironing out all the small stuff at the moment, and have no idea about previous problems.
I have searched the forum but couldn't find any info, so any help would be awesome. What could cause this wire to overheat?



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A crusty connection may have created some resistance (heat). Even the one at the blue wire, being the circuit continues thru it.

Ah yes. I have been here. The red/black is the 12V power wire that daisy chains between the gauges. This part of the harness is not fused. Over the years you get some harness abrasion and sooner or later the harness shorts against the chassis and you get a dead short. This draws all kinds of current and it burns up the wires in short order.

I'd pull the gauges and go through as much of the harness you can and see what the damage is. Hopefully it's limited to what you have found there (crusty as JW says) and you can crimp in a repair and a new bulb holder for the lamp. From what I can see from your photo I'm not seeing any more damage after the 1st couple of inches of insulation.

I had damage right back to the fuse box so I pulled the whole harness and sent it to timmy2 for good as new repair.

There are lots of good threads on here on how to fuse that part of the harness. Definitely recommended.

Gauge fusing.
 

And "While you're in there" fuse the lamp wires with a 3A fuse.

Gerry

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Cool!