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Hi, I really hope someone can help me here.

Driving my 1987 90 home from work today and all of a sudden was aware of a lot of smoke coming from the steering column switch cowl!! So I pulled over, turned the ignition off and got ready to make a hasty retreat. The smoke seemed to die down so as I was almost home I carried on and all seemed ok. When I got home I stripped it down and have discovered the red wire for the sidelights has burnt out all the way back to the fusebox, and lord knows where else! So obviously I now have no sidelights, although the headlights seem to be working ok. So firstly, does anyone have any ideas on what may have caused the problem? And secondly, what can I do about it? I'm thinking I may have to somehow rewire the sidelight circuit but would obviuosly need to know where to start. A wiring diagram would help. I should mention that we have had a LOT of rain the past couple of days so I don't know wether water ingress could be the culprit.

Any help would be soooo greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

PS; I should also point out that I am away for a few days as from tomorrow morning ( great timing as always! )so if I don't reply to some of you then you know why. Thanks again.

Steve.

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Water alone would not allow enough current to pass to burn a wire till it smokes unless it's been tracking for some time, sounds like a short somewhere.

Were the sidelights on when the smoke started, if not then its only the wiring from the fuse to the switch thats suspect, if it's burnt up to the switch then maybe the faults in there?

If the lights were on when the fault ocurred it might be worth looking at the individual sidelights to see if there is any signs of burning on the feed wire at the back of each lamp unit.

Sorry I don't have a wiring diagram for that vintage but it's pretty simple from what I remember of the 1989 90 that I had a while ago.

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Water alone would not allow enough current to pass to burn a wire till it smokes unless it's been tracking for some time, sounds like a short somewhere.

Were the sidelights on when the smoke started, if not then its only the wiring from the fuse to the switch thats suspect, if it's burnt up to the switch then maybe the faults in there?

If the lights were on when the fault ocurred it might be worth looking at the individual sidelights to see if there is any signs of burning on the feed wire at the back of each lamp unit.

Sorry I don't have a wiring diagram for that vintage but it's pretty simple from what I remember of the 1989 90 that I had a while ago.

To be honest I can't remember if the lights were on or not. I had them on just previous as we were in the middle of some pretty heavy rain so there is a good chance that they were still on. What with the panic of seeing all the smoke I may well have turned them off when I switched the ignition off. Will check the individual lamps anyway I think.

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As I have previously been corrected about on this forum <cough> the sidelights are (read "should be") on 2.5A fuses, one for each side. There is no way on this good earth that a fuse this small would stand enough current to cook the wire.

So, I'd also check that some previous owner hasn't reacted to a historic intermittent short by putting bigger fuses in!

While you're checking the sidelights, also do the trailer wiring and any bullet connectors you can get to. The sidelight circuits are on red/black (left) and red/orange wires (right).

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As I have previously been corrected about on this forum <cough> the sidelights are (read "should be") on 2.5A fuses, one for each side. There is no way on this good earth that a fuse this small would stand enough current to cook the wire.

So, I'd also check that some previous owner hasn't reacted to a historic intermittent short by putting bigger fuses in!

While you're checking the sidelights, also do the trailer wiring and any bullet connectors you can get to. The sidelight circuits are on red/black (left) and red/orange wires (right).

Good point. I will check them out. I noticed that the wiring thats burnt around the fusebox is only damaged on one side of the sidelight fuses, the right hand side as you look at it, which I think is the power side as opposed to the load (lights) side. I've ordered a new switch anyway as the wiring from that was quite knackered.

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