No headlights, fusible link at bulkhead melted…

70SwingerGuy said

Im not sure Im understanding the flow of current, you are saying that it flows from the battery through the red towards the interior, but the diagram shown here shows it flowing towards the battery, and the alternator supplying the current to the welded splice. I must be missing something basic here.
@67Dart273 not questioning you at all, just trying to learn :)

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I will definitely be checking the alternator as part of this entire repair… I’m thinking if the terminal on the alternator got that hot it’s indicative of a problem within the alternator. I am building a list of parts I’ll need to order besides the new fusible link, I’d like to figure out the headlight issue before hand with the car turned off and then figure out why the link and alternator show signs of excessive current…
I traced the path you described on the diagram in the manual and that all makes sense, I will try and work around the fusible link and try the headlights again, but I tried several times last night and the second I went from the light green wire at the center of the dimmer harness to either wire powering the high and low beams my test light at the headlight switch would go out, disconnect the jumper, cycle the headlight switch and the test light would light up and stay lit until I tried to jumper at the dimmer harness… could the circuit breaker in the headlight switch just be tired? It doesn’t make sense to me that there would be a short on both the high and low beams? Plenty to think through, thanks for your insight so far!