Synopsis:
Recently I have been experiencing a serious electrical short somewhere through my ignition system (constant motor misfire, 2 blown 30amp ignition fuses, 2 blown cabin fuses, and plenty of electrical noise from miscellaneous electrical connections (amps, relays, and unit connectors). After pulling the dash and looking at the wiring, I came to the conclusion its coming from the ignition switch harness. The switch connects to the cylinder that the car key goes into and switches power through out the chassis according to the position the key is in (off, acc, on, start ect.). From the switch, it connects to an interior chassis harness that feeds somewhere into, or near, the Super Multiple Junction.

history
A couple of weeks ago I began pulling the viper alarm system from my car because it was giving me issues. The system was wired into the ignition switch (switch side) in a poor fashion. Instead of soldering the connections, the system wires were just spliced, taped, and zip tied onto the ignition switch harness. I tried to repair the wires as well as I could at the time. Upon my repair, I noticed one wire was extremely burnt near the connection (between the switch side and the interior chassis side). It's burnt (almost black) about one inch in both directions of the connector.

The wire is white with red stripe and receives constant power (off, on and start positions).

Issue
My problem is that this wire runs hot when the car is on. I don't know if it's normal but none of the other wires that receive power run as hot as this white/red wire. I also noticed that this wire is hotter on the switch side than the chassis side, and hottest on the burnt spots by the connectors. The voltage on the wire was also 12.75v on the chassis side and ~12.5v on the ignition harness side.

I believe the wire is "too burnt" and as the current flows through the chassis side, it experiencing resistance at the connector and causing what I think is excessive heat.

I already have a new ignition switch on the way because my current switch has what I believe to be too many repair splices.

I dont know if the burnt connection was from my doing of from a previous owner, but my concern is that I may burn this new switch too if I dont repair the conncetion on the chassis side.

Questions
Would I be ok with just replacing the ignition switch?
If not,
Is there a place I could buy this one particular interior harness that connects to the ignition switch?
Could I just replace the one wire by it self with a new 16 gauge wire from Radio Shack or something?

on the s13 there are two large gauge wires that run from the ignition to the engine bay that control the running function of the car. one is for "hot starts" and one is for "cold starts" when properly wiring in an alarm these wires need to be relayed togeather with a diode protected relay. if you removed the viper alarm and did not remove this relay (wherever it was installed) it could be grounding out through that relay. you should read up on how to properly install an alarm in the s13 and check over the wiring to make sure its correct. as a general rule tho when removing an alarm any wire that is connected to the alarm from the factory harness should be connected back to itself (made whole again) keeping in mind that at the factory no two different colored wires connect inline (are spliced togeather). you should be able to find a basic alarm chart at the12volt.com, as far as replacing the harness you should be able to find one at a JY.

P.S. the wire colors change at the connector between the ignition cyl sub harness and the main interior harness.

Thanks for the reply moso. Ill triple check the wiring, but I thought I got everything from the alarm system. I

Update:
I checked all the wiring again and I didn’t see any extra alarm system components I could have missed. I traced the white/red wire (constant power) from the ignition switch to a white wire in the cabin harness. That white wire went into a relay by the Super Multiple Junction box in the cabin, and according to fsm schematics, that relay should be the oem ignition relay. So I think the cabin is “clean” now from alarm system components.
Last week I also eliminated about 2-grocery bags worth of EFI wires I was not using and redid connections with solder and heat shrink. Results didn’t make much of a difference, but I did notice the car would turn over faster if I had the electric fans disconnected.
Suspicion: Electric Fans
When I bought the car years ago, it came with electric fans already installed. I don’t know the brand, and I can’t find any printed information about them on the fans themselves. All I know is that they are grounded to the chassis by one connector and powered by one wire that runs through the bay, into the cabin and connected to the ignition switch. I think the wire it is connected to is black with white stripe, either way, it’s a switch power source that’s off when the key is in the “Off” and “Acc.” position and on when the key is in the “On” and “Start” positions. This is where I found the fan connected to when I pulled the alarm system out so this is where I left it.
Diagnosis:
With the fans disconnected and the car “Off” the white/red (constant power) wire reads about 12.6v (battery power). With the car not running but in the “on” position the black/white (switch power) wire reads about 12.5v (battery power?). With the car on and running, all the wires but one (ground) wire read about 13.6v (battery power?).
I noticed the car turns over a lot smoother and idles decently. I didn’t take it for a drive because I did not have a cluster attached to monitor my temperature. I did however notice the white/red (constant power) that used to run extremely hot was NOT HOT AT ALL! I let it idle for a while and revved the motor a bit and the wire did not sizzle one bit or show any signs of beginning to heat up.
I diagnosed again but this time with the electric fans connected. Voltage was the same, 12.6v off but when the car was not running but in the on position, the voltage on the black/white (switched power) wire that the fans are wired to was about 10.8v. I turned on the car, and it turned over slowly but started. The voltage on all the wires was about 12.5v and the white/red wire began to get hot almost instantly. I let it idle for a bit and after about 20 seconds the white/red wire was sizzling hot!
What I tried:
I went through the fan wiring and made sure the connections were solid.
I looked at the ground connector of the fan wires and buffed it so it was a nice shiny copper again.
I cleaned and sanded its surface free of paint.

The white/red ignition wire still got hot so I tried adding a 4 gauge ground wire to the fan’s ground so it would have 2 grounds instead of one. Didn’t help; white/red wire is still sizzling.
Questions:
Does this mean something is wrong with my fans? Internal short? They still work and turn on, they just seem like they’re taking a lot of juice.
Are they over powering my ignition switch and drawing too much amperage for the switch to handle? Is that why the white/red (constant power) wire runs so hot?
What are my options for fans like these that I have no information about?
Could I just re-wire the fans to another switched power source? Will I be ok, or will I still experience the same excessive heat problem?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

in short, yes your fans are way too much for your stock ign wiring! if your having trouble with your e-fans you should seriously check out my e-fan wiring guide in my sig, its foolproof and wont trash up your stock wiring. good e-fans can draw up to 30 amps of juice to run and 60 amps just to kick on, my sho fan can spike 60 amps no sweat. hi amperage and long wire runs is a recipe for disaster.

I installed the dif fan controller last week and have put about 120 miles on it since. The car runs way better, the fans run way better, and the ignition switch wire(s) don't run hot anymore! The car and fans feel like they're working more efficiently, and the temperature gauge shows a slight decrease in temperature. I can't believe I hadn't bought this sooner. Thanks moso for the fan knowledge.