Toasted my fusible link last night!

No need to, "smoke" happens

The way to troubleshoot a bad or dangerous short is to figure a way to protect the system so nothing can be damage, and this is actually fairly easy.

What you need is "a lamp."

Disconnect the battery ground, and put your lamp in SERIES from the battery NEG post to the disconnected ground clamp. This makes a current limiting device. When you get all loads safely "off" and any shorts removed, the light will go out, and you can short just about anything, and all that will happen is, that the lamp will light up

"Things that are handy."

Sometimes a 12V test lamp is not heavy enough wattage for this, as it lights with fairly small current. I use an old headlight, and an old stop / tail light

A stop tail can be wired a number of different ways to increase or decrease the current "it takes."

1...Very low current. Leave the shell of the lamp unconnected, and use the stop wire for one terminal, and the tail wire for the other. This creates a lighter wattage 24V bulb that doesn't draw much current

2....A little more.....Use the lamp shell as one terminal, and the tail wire.

3....A fair amount more wattage..........use the lamp shell and the stop wire

4....Max wattage.......Use the lamp shell for one terminal, and twist the stop and tail wires together using both of them as one terminal.

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Just hook up your test lamp. If it lights, go round and insure that everything is off. Don't forget dome, trunk, glove box lights, and the key off.

If it still lights, unconnect "stuff" one at a time, starting with "what it is that you messed with."

(Might even be a defective starter relay)................."New" does not mean "functional."