Had the running lights on while I tried to figure out why one of the bulbs wasn’t working and got a strong burning smell and very hot by drivers side of trunk. After undoing what I think is the original harness wrapping I traced the smell to a pink wire. It is thicker than the others and has “Do not cut or splice” printed on it. Would it be a resistance wire? I could not find this in the wiring diagram manual (but am really bad at reading schematics). Lights do still work including brake lights and turn signals.
It is a .75 ohm resistance wire that is used to decrease the intensity of the running lights. With 6 bulbs @ 14V, it will dissipate about 10 W - this will cause the wire to get very warm!
But the heat is distributed over the 34"-35" length of wire.
It’s possible that the wire insulation has deteriorated over the years and is causing the smell.
I had no idea they used a resistance wire in series with the parking lights. I don’t see that in my 70 schematic either. Where is it physically located?