Duster fusible link wiring problem

My duster isn’t starting now for some reason. There’s some pretty shotty wiring under the hood that I plan on replacing in the near future, but for right now there’s one wire that I figured out is causing a problem. It says “fusible link” on the wire and it’s two bare wires that are wrapped around each other. The previous owner had it like this. Whenever I put the positive terminal cable on the battery it makes an arcing noise and the wire that says fusible link will get hot and smoke. Should I solder the two wires together? The car ran with them like that for months, but now it’s acting like they are hooked up wrong. I did have electrical tape over the wires, but it melted off.