smoke underdash, flickering headlights....this sucks!

Well I was driving home tonight and I was on a fairly quiet stretch of road. Well I had my lights on, I stop at a stop light and no one around. So I gun it, only I loose my lights, they dim and flicker. So I pull over and when I open the door the under dash light comes on, I notice smoke in the area of the light switch. I jump out and unplug the battery. It’s too dark now, but I got it home and haven't had a chance to see what fried. its a new switch, I replaced it because it flickered a few weeks ago. So I guess this is pretty serious. Anyone have any ideas? I’ll give ya an up-date in the morning.

Well when I was lying in my bed last night thinking, where the hell am I gonna get an under dash harness, I started thinking about what could be causing my problem. The only thing I could think of was the old tach drive harness that I installed a couple years ago; it was for a Dixco hood tach. I recently put headers on the car, so it’s much hotter under hood then before.

First thing I went for when I opened the hood was that older harness for the tach, I was gonna put that Dixco back on, not now though, or at least with that harness. The power wire to the light on the tach fell, burnt through the tape and grounded to the driver’s side header. I also pulled the switch to check for toasting, there was nothing I could see. I guess I’ll find out………….now where did I put the fire extinguisher???????

DId you upgrade your headlights? Did you run relays? Maybe the extra draw of the headlights had an affect an the switch/wiring.

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no, good thinking though, i didnt put on halogans, that semes to be a problem with that conversion though, thats the question i got asked on another board too.

Oh, and i posted this same question at mustangsteve, VMF, and fomoco.com and i got the most, and best answers here, no wonder why i love you guys!