harness fire...

some new developments...

so just to humor myself i picked up another ballast resistor, new out the box it had the same resistance values that the one currently on the fire wall had. i even plugged it in and tried to start the car, no dice. same issue as before, would start then die with key in run position.

so i plugged the other ballast in, unplugged the ignition switch, and jump power to the brown ignition 2 wire on the dash harness. car started right up like it has been.

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I went to touch the factory ecu box to see if it was getting warm. it was, significantly in only a matter of seconds! i touched the gold colored heat sink and it shocked the hell out of my hand!--------what would cause this to happen? is this box grounded through its mounting point on the fender wall? i ask because the fenders on my car are fiberglass and that will not work if so...

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i am almost certain that there is some issue in the way the ignition system is wired up if this box is ok and not shorted internally....
Under normal starting conditions (with the key turning to start) it will start up, but as soon as i let the key spring back to run it dies. the ignition switch is supping power to the blue and black ignition 1 and accessory wires in the "run" position. in the "start" position, the switch is sending power to the yellow and brown, start and ignition 2 wires...which allows the ignition system to fire and the engine to start up.

so.... that means that the engine will run with power to the brown ignition 2 wire, which is what i "jumped" power to, from the red 12v wire to "hot wire" the car. under this condition it started and ran fine... except for the control unit on the fender wall. it shocked me, obviously there is a short in this loop. what is going on?!?! any insight is extremely helpful guys...