Wire id help (battery to fusebox)

[Dzdimi14]

The wire from my battery going into my fuse box (red in photo) completly shorted out and melted due to a bad jumpstart


one of the two cables wrapped in that black sheathing I sliced open is completely melted down to copper, the other thicker red one is still mostly intact with a few spots that started to burn through. I was wondering what would be the best way to replace these cables since they seem to be very integrated into the fuse box? Or is my best bet to just get a new wiring harness entirely? I cant seem to find any other melted cables past this one leading to the fuse box.


Am I correct in thinking this is the 10RD cable going from the battery junction block to the power distribution box ending at 30? If so why are there two wires when this shows only the thicker red one?

[Dzdimi14]

Thanks in advance for any help!

[ForcedFirebird]

10rd is 10mm. That would be the wire in the split loom (with the little black wire next to it in pic) that terminates at the starter and junction block (provided you have a hard top car and battery in back).

Without knowing the whole situation, it appears to me that the strand of wires that comes from the fuse box and goes to the battery junction was shorted to ground.

I would recommend you pull the relays from the fuse box, and find the two phillips screws under them. Open the top of the box, and you can see/repair much easier once you are under the PCB.

Can you post a pic of your junction, and maybe elaborate on how this all happened? The fusible link in the trunk should have prevented this if you have a hard top and battery in back. If you have a real early model, or drop-top, then the diagnosis will change.

[Dzdimi14]

10rd is 10mm. That would be the wire in the split loom (with the little black wire next to it in pic) that terminates at the starter and junction block (provided you have a hard top car and battery in back).

Without knowing the whole situation, it appears to me that the strand of wires that comes from the fuse box and goes to the battery junction was shorted to ground.

I would recommend you pull the relays from the fuse box, and find the two phillips screws under them. Open the top of the box, and you can see/repair much easier once you are under the PCB.

Can you post a pic of your junction, and maybe elaborate on how this all happened? The fusible link in the trunk should have prevented this if you have a hard top and battery in back. If you have a real early model, or drop-top, then the diagnosis will change.

I spent some time unwrapping a bunch of the wiring and found what I think is most likely the problem.


Adding to my stupidity, I used a self tapping screw to fix part of the wheel well plastic which broke around its stock screw and managed to screw right into my ABS wiring...

When I unwrapped it the red wires are completely bare copper and are touching the bare copper of the brown wires which I assume are ground.

Between the abs wiring and the fuse box I also found two crimps which were wrapped in athletic tape so I am assuming are not stock

The red wiring that was melted seems to be fine from after this crimp until the abs wiring short I caused by the screw. The wire running in the other direction towards the fuse box is melted all the way until the junction box where it ends at the circled bolt.


Am I right in thinking once I fix the short caused by the screw I should be good? Should I just buy some wiring and splice in some new wires and try again? or could there be other problems caused by this I should address before hooking up the battery?



Thanks for the help!

[Dzdimi14]

Also, the car is an '89 coupe and I wasn't able to find the fuseable link but it could be I was just not looking in the correct area.