Melted Wire in Steering Column

[jogl]

While bleeding the injector lines yesterday I noticed smoke coming out from under the dash while I was cranking the engine. It only happened twice out of probably a hundred cranks.

Today I traced the melted wire up into the steering column. It is a wire that grounds the top of the steering column to the fire wall. It looks to be either an added feature or a replacement of the original. It is only about an 18 ga. wire.

With the steering column covers off I could see that something was getting very hot in the key switch module right where the wire bundle connects to it. Something must be shorting to ground in the key switch causing the plastic case of the switch and the insulation of the ground wire to melt.

Anybody had this happen? Any ideas to try? I can't take the keyswitch apart unless I buy or make an anti tamper #10 torx bit.

Thanks,
JP.

P.S.: It looks like the high current is in either (or both) of the Black with Red (or is it Black with Orange) wire and the Red with Black. Anybody know what these wires do?

JP.

[RumbleFish]

A coworker with a 92 D350 had this happen. Dunno what caused it, but he had to rerun just about every ground under the dash. Hasn't had a problem since.