76 K20 w/ Fried wires to Neutral Safety & B/U Switch

[Shtudwn]

Hello,

I just bought a 1976 K20 Camper Special that has some serious "lack of maintenance" issues.

When I got it home I looked at the fuses, since the dash lights were either bad or non-existent and noticed that I had a wire that was fried. Someone had wrapped a wire around a leg of the flasher with the other end plugged into the face of the fuse panel. It was fried.

I removed it and pulled the fuse panel and found the wire (LG) from the firewall to the Neutral Safety & B/U Switch was totally bare! It had cooked through its insulation and through the harness wrap! Further, the the other wire (DG) from the flassher leg to the Neutral Safety & B/U Switch was also fried! I did find the reason for the "quick connect" on the front of the fuse panel in tha the blue wire that was to connect that leg of the flasher had broken at the connector.

The blue wire is an easy fix but now I am wonder what would have caused all this destruction???? If I put it back will it just fry again? Could it be a bad Neutral Safety & B/U Switch? Could it have been the "quick connect" someone did? What would cause such a short?

I will say that when I started the two bare wires (DG) and (LG) did have power to them as they sparked and I disconnected the battery

Ideas?

Thank you.