Letting the smoke out of the wiring...

Smoke coming from under the dash.  That's never a good thing!  This happened in traffic about 8 miles from home, so I quickly pulled over and disconnected the battery.

A quick look under the dash, and I knew this wasn't going to be a 'side of the road' kind of repair.  Time to use the AAA towing coverage.

With the car back home, I took some pictures under the dash.  The wiring to the mechanical brake switch is fried, but it looks like most everything else is OK.

I noticed my mistake in wiring the brake light switch... I connected it to the hot terminal of the ignition switch without any fuse!  I definitely should have known better.  The brake switch wiring was much lighter gage than the rest of the original 6V wiring, and ended up being it's own fuse.

For the last year or so, I have noticed a tendency for the turn signal fuse to blow sporadically.  Just before the "smoke" incident, the fuse had blown again... in fact, I was on my way to Pep Boys to get a replacement fuse when it happened!  I noticed that the turn lever was down (left) after the fuse blew, indicating that the short is in the left stop light wiring.

This won't take much work to fix.  I'm mad at myself for not taking care of it sooner, before it rendered the car inoperable.    This is a good opportunity to put in a fuse block, rather than have so many fuse holders hanging off of the ignition switch!  That would certainly make maintenance a lot easier.

Sometimes, I let little things go without tracing them down... things like why I'm feeling triggered, or why I'm having a moment of lust.  Sometimes I just don't have time to deal with it, or at least that's what I tell myself.   But, deep down, I know something isn't right, and will need some attention.  Something may need to be rewired... an opportunity for an upgrade.