Burnt Wire

yesterday i dropped the steering column and all of the wires looked perfectly fine. I put a test light to all of the fuses when the key was in the on position and all of them lit the light up except Inst. Lps and Tail lp. As for the ground to the block, It is connected as I have yet to mess with that yet. I will check that it has good ground and clean it as post #12 said. As for the 40 amp discharge, I have zero clue. put the key in on position, (discharge) then turned the key off when I noticed the sizzling noise from under the dash. apparently my dad heard a electrical buzz underneath the hood by the starter but he was not too sure. also, why would the shift linkage be one wire grounded to itself with no other wires going to it?

Could the voltage regulator be bad causing the -40 discharge?