Anaconda said:

It's melted because it's been rubbing on the manifold by the looks of it.
Replace the damaged wires with new cable of the relevant amps?

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Anaconda said:

Trapped wire, short circuit and burnt the loom out rather than blowing a fuse?
Some bodged up previous owner modification?
Hard to say with the photo as it doesn't really show that much damage.

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ryan_1993 said:

Apparently the loom isn’t fused? For the engine?

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Anaconda said:

Really, nothing on the engine loom is covered by any fuse?
That's a bit worrying isn't it?
I'm not an electrical expert but it might be wise to remove the outer loom insulation and try and find exactly what has melted and why if possible.

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freelance said:

I imagine the starter motor solenoid or the alternator has a dead short in it also

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tottot said:

The melting of wiring like that is likely a case of something earthing that should not be doing so rather than a "bad"earth.
Or it has been exposed to something like an exhaust leak. Looks to run close to manifold joint.

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ryan_1993 said:

So still struggling to work out what that connector actually is.

The further connector down on the alternator which melted seems that it could be several things and I am a bit confused.

one post said it could be the battery warning charge light. Now that the wire has been pulled the battery light is still going out as normal.

The other to stop the radio going fuzzy???

Another that its if you want to fit a rev counter but my defender doesn’t have that

Then one being the ignition live, but again that still all works with the wire pulled. So I am a bit stumped

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lynall said:

Google A127 alternator wiring diagram, proper simple how they should be, only needs two wires to work.
Only thing that carries real power is the fat (brown I think) wire that runs to the starter positive.

Of course some muppet could have got the power for some accessory direct from the alternator positive?

Tbh that does not look really burnt, have you checked manifold gaskets etc as @tottot suggested above?

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tottot said:

That does look proper melted, no covering left on wires.
It looks to me it could be an add on line taped on the outside of original wire cover.
Peel right back and try and see where it goes and maybe find a bit with cover colour still on it.

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ryan_1993 said:

Its the same through the entire loom so far

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dag019 said:

that will be the wire that has earthed without a fuse. What was it connected to at the end? by following it back hopefully you will find where it has contacted to earth out.

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ryan_1993 said:

I don’t know what proper burned is, but hopefully this photo helps its closer

The smaller wire on the lower terminal has shed its out pvc skin completely through the loom as I have pulled it through. Managed to get it up to the Thermostat elbow atm will continue pulling it through if i can.

It isn’t touching the exhaust manifold the part what goes off to the right I moved to get a better photo of the dameg, that part of the loom is from an old Kenlow pre heater system it had fitted some time ago. The wires on that end are cut blanked off is and left in like a cylindrical rubber housing normally it just sits in the wheel arch.

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