BC,

Per your experience, I think we've all had some where you try to help and the other person has to point a finger for their own faults. The guy should have realized the advice comes with salt and that the task was not without risk requiring appropriate due diligence, else we'd all be doing the heftiest of jobs and wouldn't need pros.

Thanks for checking the green book. The mystery continues. You're probably dead on. Am curious to know if others having this wire also have a corrosion problem. Am thinking it is acting as a noise collector for my ground and non-OEM radio. Will likely cut the corroded elements off and seal with tape/caulk.

OD goes back to what was seemingly a persistent problem - the overdrive relay. Truly believe my alternator was a corruptor of system electrical quality that zapped headlights, OD relays, fuzes, caused backfires and eventually drained the fargin battery. I failed to apply what I learned when I was younger - when you see one headlight stronger than the other, it's likely the alternator on its way out. Should have also realized it was draining my battery when I partially saw several idiot lights fade-on. My guess is that an idiot light goes on only when DC is provided to it by the appropriate fault circuit/relay. If system power across the idiot lights has some DC, it will cause the faded-on appearance I saw. The DC I saw was my battery shunting across my alternator and not AC from the alternator - which I belive was failing. That WAS a problem. The OD has been good since.

-OD Willy