electrical help needed

[Canoe]

well, attached is the more distant photo and........I removed that wire panel/harness and also attached the picture. Very melted. Now what?

I guess I'm missing something obvious, but I don't see anything melted in your first image.  All I see is the black, tarry goop they used to seal the connector housing so water couldn't corrode the terminals.  My '83 and '84 both had that same sealer in the main connectors.
David

framedoctor in emailing pic to me

I believe that djm3452004 is correct, that what I thought was melted was actually a tar like sealant

So, back to wanting photos for fuse box, high-low switch, new stereo harness.

Still: don't leave the battery connected when you're not right there testing.

[framedoctor]

The new uploaded photo is little blurry unless you touch it to open it in a separate window then the high res seems to be there

[Canoe]

... If you look at your rear defrost ribbon electrical attachments, do both wires look like they're wires returning to the front of the vehicle, or is there perhaps one that is attached to the body there for a ground? (at one of the hinge bolts?) ...

The cut-up schematic is showing the defrost ribbon grounding near the ribbon. Can you confirm?

[Canoe]

The new uploaded photo is little blurry unless you touch it to open it in a separate window then the high res seems to be there

Note the threaded bolt is nice and sharp, with the terminals less so. Where it locks the focus on something like that in the centre, try putting the centre onto what you actually want sharply in focus, let it focus and take the image (lots of resolution to crop it as you want; seems to need a smaller pixel count to load anyway), or let it focus and re-frame the image as you like before you take the shot.

[Taylor]

Looks like the terminal that bolts to the firewall might have a crack in it. Or is my eyesight that bad?
Also I increased the photo maximum size. Hopefully that helps. Not sure why a photo less than 4mb did not load. The only information they error log gives is that it is taking longer to load or is bigger than the server will allow?

[Canoe]

More photos emailed

[Canoe]

seems to be reducing the dimension to 4000x gets it accepted
I'm also stripping out the EXIF info

[Canoe]

was a centre rear brake light stock on Eagles at some point?

[Taylor]

Fuse box looks pretty good, I think better than mine. Mine is attached for comparison.
I would question the connection at the rear hatch for the defroster. Also, I don't think any AMC's had the third brake light.
Edit, they were mandated in 1986.

[framedoctor]

The third brake light looks to be after market. My father in laws father, was a mechanic, this was his car originally, he may have added the light. Tomorrow I will post a pic of the dash box for that third brake light.

[framedoctor]

TAYLOR, is there a fuse for the headlights? I dont see it labeled.

[rmick]

There is no fuse for the headlights the switch has internal contacts that if two much current draw (heat)  opens the contacts in the switch and close again when it cools back down. Thats where the relay mod for the lights come in handy not all the current is directed through the switch,

[Taylor]

rmick, didn't know that. Interesting!
Here is the wiring schematic. Hopefully this can help too.
http://amceaglesden.com/guide/Lighting_Wiring_Schematic

[framedoctor]

rmick, how do i remove the switch to look for damage?

[Canoe]

rmick, how do i remove the switch to look for damage?

The light switch can be damaged, but not often.
The high/low switch is well known for heat/melting damage. And it's a lot easier to get at than the light switch.