Hope someone can help me figure this out. Because I am stumped.

Started from the car drove it out the drive way and it died. Smoking coming out from the wiring behind the gauges.

Wire that goes from ignition switch 15/54 to the gauge for warning lights has burnt off all its coating and fuse is gone.
Have remade and replaced. Same thing again.

Disconnect the wire from fuse box to warning lights and car starts. But blows a fuse and no indicators working.

Can't figure out why it's not working. Haven't done anything to the car except remove the dash pad and that can't be it.

Any help appreciated.

Sounds like a short in a wire that may have been unsettled due to the dash removal.

You don't say what year KG but heres the Smaba wiring list link so you can look at the appropriate year.

I had a look at a 67 and the ign to dash power is unfused but does go via the fuel gauge before heading to the dash lights. Could be different on your year.

Could also be related that the switched live feed fuses also feed the indicators.

When it comes to fault diagnosis you have to use the wiring diagram so you can pull wires until the fault is eliminated and then bypass the wire and see if the problem still occurs. If you have a multimeter then you can also use the continuity function and with both ends of a wire disconnected and you touch and end of the wire with one meter probe and the other probe to the chassis then if you get continuity you know that wire has a short in it. Depends which way you wish to skin the cat

It's a 1960 model. But I had to do a complete rewire on it.

There is a wire that goes from the speedo to fuel gauge to clock. But don't think that's it.

I can't see anything that would have been disturbed when removing the dash pad.
It's doing my head in.

Hmm, no 1960 on the samba which is odd but had a look at a 61. Oddly enough there is both a 0.5 black and 1.5 yellow from term 15, ign live, to the switched live fuses. What's odd is the dash is fed from both the ign switch and the switched live fuses due to the yellow 1.5 wire being there.

Now if you only had the 0.5 wire feding the switched live fuses without the 1.5yellow wire then the current draw of the switched live circuits will turn the 0.5 wire into a matchstick.

Now with both the switched live fuses removed the engine should start and run with no further isssues. If it does then put each fuse back one at a time and whichever blows is the circuit that has a short in it.

Oh, but do make sure you have thick enough wire from term 15 of the ign switch to the switched fuses or it'll always be melting and causing fires.

I disconnected the 0.5 Tom the fuse and it worked ok. But still no indicators.
If I disconnect it completely the car starts but the fuse still blows.

Do you have a 4 fues fusebox or 8 fuse box? Just helps a little looking at the wiring diagram but either way with the fues removed the engine will start and run cos the ignition coil is an unfused feed taken from the unfused wide of the box where the ign term 15 wire feeds into the box on both 8 and 4 fuse type boxes.

With the engine running, and it should run perfectly fine, then add each fuse and turn the circuits that fuse runs on until you find the circuit that blows it's fuse.

If the engine isn't running well then check the voltage at the +ve coil term and if less than 13.8V or greater than 14.4V then you have a genny problem. Any lower than 11.8V and you have a major voltage drop in the coil supply wiring and can lead to poor running cos the coil isn't creating a big enough spark.

If everything was perfectly fine before you removed the dash pad then more than likely you accidentally knocked some wiring loose but just seems unlikely to be an odd coincidence with now having electrical issues.

They're basic cars so be methodical in your approach and you'll figure it out.

Thanks. Will give all that a try.

Got an 8 fuse box.
I had to change it a bit from standard wiring. But it has worked fine for a year. So not sure why it decided to give up now.

Ok so think I have got it figured.

Disconnected everything on the side of then fuse that was blowing that wasn't on the ignition side.
Still had the 15/54 wire getting way too hot to touch even before the car started. So disconnected the headlight flasher switch wire. Plugged everything else back in and all works fine.

So going to keep the headlight flasher switch disconnected. Think I may have broken the wire as I bottomed out very hard on the drive way the dat it caught fire. So guessing it broke then.

Checked the coil. At idle it's getting about 12.8v

So with the headlight flasher disconnected the 15/54 wire stays cool? Could actually be the flasher itself as they are known to fail internally. Still, just check all the wiring in and out but doubt it'll be any of the wires that lead to the headlights if they still work fine.

As for 12.8V at idle, hmm. Do you have alternator or genny? If genny then rev the engine to about 2k rpm and see what the voltage is like then. If still under 13.8V then could be the genny needs new brushes or the regulator is starting to fail.

So with the headlight flasher disconnected the 15/54 wire stays cool? Could actually be the flasher itself as they are known to fail internally. Still, just check all the wiring in and out but doubt it'll be any of the wires that lead to the headlights if they still work fine.

As for 12.8V at idle, hmm. Do you have alternator or genny? If genny then rev the engine to about 2k rpm and see what the voltage is like then. If still under 13.8V then could be the genny needs new brushes or the regulator is starting to fail.

So turns out it's not the headlight switch. Had it mixed up. It's actually the brake light switch I think.

Back to searching for the problem.

OK, so remove all the fuses and replace each one in turn and then turn that circuit on and wait to see if the ign wire heats up for each circuit. Leave the brake light fuse till last and if nothing else causes the wire to get hot then turn everthing off and pop the brake light fuse in and with the brakes on see if the ign wire gets hot. If it does then bingo.

This could be a partial short in the wire but more likely corrsion to the terminals and earth points for that circuit. Clean all terminal first and if the wire still gets hot then replace the bulbs and clean the bulb holders. If that don't work then sounds like the wires need replacing.

So worked it out.

Using a new loom I got from cip1. The wire from the brake switch joins another wire at the fuse box. Disconnect the other wire and problem goes away. No idea what that wire joins to as everything still works. It's a red thick gauge wire.

Going to email cip1 and ask for a copy of the wiring diagram as I can't find it.

But happy it's back on the road and not burning up anymore.

There's a thick red that is meant to be attached to the other end of the box from the brakes fuse and it powers the relay for the twin horns. Maybe it's that as it an american loom and not European, maybe?

It's an American loom I think.
I am not a inning the twin horns so would probably explain why I can't work out where it goes.