What is the orange wire in the steering column?

[myasylum]

The orange wire fell out of the harness when I was tighting the bolts for the steering column, and I must have grounded out the wire. The two 3 amp fuses blew out, so I have dash lights, or turn signal lights for the dash.
Kind of sucks! the wire is bare metal now and I'll have to fix the wire.

Other then the fuses is there anything else I might want to check that might have blown? What is that wire for?

Thanks much!

 

[daredevil]

If its not in the collum its probably the lighter wire. could be shifter indicator light if its in the collumn.

 

[slant6/4speed]

What year are you? If you have the key in the column it could be the light for lighting up the key hole.

 

[myasylum]

73 duster...

You wouldn't think I blew up anything but the fuse, would yea?

 

[slant6/4speed]

-I under stand now-you pinched a wire under the dash when you tightened the two column clamp bolts that clamp it to the dash. Not in the column. Which 3 amp fuses? are they labeled?

 

[slant6/4speed]

It might be the ash tray light.

 

[myasylum]

Well the wires run down the Steering column. I had to take the dash out. When I bolted the metal plate that holds up the steering column I pinched the orange wire. The two fuses are not labeled they just say "3A". It's the first two fuses drivers side.

 

[slantsixdan]

Orange = dashboard, radio, and IP illumination. It's for your shift indicator, most likely.

 

[RedFish]

The orange wires are illumination so that is the shift indicator lamp wire.
It's not in the main connectors since not all cars have auto column shift.
A couple years ago there were aftermarket ignition switches with an extra wire in the connector position where that orange wire should go. If it wasn't corrected the fuse would blow when switch is turned to on.
The Chinese must have thought "5th contact on switch, extra hole in connector, must be wire from/to". That's wrong. The 5th contact on the switch wasn't used.

 

[slantsixdan]

The Chinese must have thought

Sorry, the Chinese must have done what, now? :roll:

 

[RedFish]

The ignition switch in the column has 5 contacts but only 4 wires on 4 of them. The harness connector with it has an extra hole where the orange wire from the indicator lamp should be installed. These aftermarket switches have a 5th wire from the extra switch contact to that extra hole in the connector. I had to remove their extra black wire from the connector and tape it away so I could put the orange wire in its proper place.

 

[slantsixdan]

The ignition switch in the column has (etc…)

Er…yeah, got that. I was being snarky about the Chinese not knowing or thinking what the hell they're doing as they make toys and pieces of trash shaped like car parts.

 

[killnine]

bringing this up from the dead to say thank you! I've been chasing this exact problem for a week. Now no more problem