Electrical Fire now no tail lights

[1981 ss chevy]

After taking my 81 c10 on about a two hour cruise it started to fun really rough when driving at speeds higher than about 30mph and when u put it in neutral and tried to rev it, it acted like it had developed a miss also all my gauges were outta whack and my tailights would work only when they wanted.  So i limped it home only a few miles, very gently.  Once i got it home i shut it off and then tried to restart it only to find that now i had no ignition what so ever and not a thing in the truck worked not lights radio gauges nothing. So then i started to check electrical system in doing so i discovered that wire that is grounded on the firewall to the right of the disty had been burnt so i restripped and put it back together once i did this all my gauges righted themselves and i had ignition and it runs like a champ again however my blinker and tailight on the passenger side wont work and the bulbs are all there and good so what could be causing this? and i checked all my fuses as well.

[Blazin]

I would check all other grounds as well. One behind the left tail light, should be one from the negative to the frame, and radiator support. One from the motor to the fire wall which is probably the one you have allready checked out. There should be one from the bed to the frame as well.

[1981 ss chevy]

ok will do, but why would a ground wire decide to fry? bad connection?

[jaredts]

The most common cause of smaller ground wires frying like that is at some point there was (or maybe still is) a problem with your main negative cable from the battery to alternator bracket (or other engine location).  When this wire isn't conducting well the current required for the starter will try to go through the smaller ground wires.  Very common.  Have you had any intermittent slow turning starter issues or recently repaired your negative cable?

[1981 ss chevy]

yes some times my starter will crank slower but i thought it was just heat soak from my headers

[1981 ss chevy]

i checked and tightened all my grounds and negative battery cable.....still nothing now what?

[VileZambonie]

I don't think you toasted a ground wire at all. I think you burnt a fusible link and stripped away the fusible link then just reconnected it. You are asking for a complete harness melt down. You have fusible links at the starter solenoid and at the junction block on the firewall. If they melt that means you are pulling too much current through those wires. This means you most likely have a wire that's shorted to ground. I would check the wiring from the starter solenoid around the back of the valve cover, up to the junction block and alternator very carefully. If you find any of those wires chafed or insulation burned up near the exhaust manifold repair the wiring and replace your fusible links.

[VileZambonie]

Here's a post on how to repair a fusible link

http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php?topic=11972.0