o.k. now this is weird...and in a 53 F100 Today
 

Well--the wife and I took a little ride today in the 1953 and even though it is cold out was quite fun.
However....We smelled something burning......like electrical....what could it be?
WELL THIS IS WHAT IT WAS......my key fob is full of keys--11 truck and cars/and lot's of barn and house keys. Last Christmas my nephew got me a 1956 ford f100 meadow green key chain. So this is very long and alot of keys hanging off it.:-X18
The key fob of the 56 was on the radio knobs and must have caused a direct short. I mean it was melting the knob in 1/2..:-huh...hahaha!!!
I could not believe it. :eek:
What happened? :confused: The 53 is still 6 volt positive ground,and would this happen if it was 12 volt? VERY WEIRD....and no more big key fobs for me.
The other thing was...my cell phone fell out of my pocket as I was under the truck and smooshed it....crap!! Wife will have to get me another.
WHAT A DAY!! :-huh:-huh WHY DID THIS BURN LIKE THAT? :confused: :-X25:-X25THANKS.........Bill

You have a problem there that you need to find before it all goes up in smoke.
You have an internal short either in the switch or the radio feeding current to the key or radio knob and when the key fob touched the other it caused a short to ground.

Use a test light connected to ground and check for current at the key or radio knob or anything esle close that the keys or fob could hace contacted. Try with the switch in various positions as well as with the radio in different settings. You have current there somewhere that it shouldn't be.

tHANKS 52 AND I do not have power to the radio--or at least it doesn't work,yet.
The key must be hot and the little metal truck on the fob must have gotten hot. The knobs on the radio are plastic and now melted. WEIRD..........Thanks

Read this! Not exactly the same, but close enough! :-huh

May 1960

Have not experienced the Pos. grd. 6volt. but the ignition switch and the radio knobs should be at the same potential,not grounding through the knobs. Also. I have always heard that you should not have a heavy key set up hanging all that weight on the ign.. switch, that alone can cause the switch to fail, and as you know those little electrons have a mind of there own and do weird things.I agree with 52 F3 ck. those items out throughly, with a test light or OHM meter, with the power off.
Hope you find out what's happening soon, you may want to pull the battery cable off, until you get it all ironed out.
later, Mike

ha ha ha !!!!!!!!!!! i'm laughing with you not at you bill !!! i dont feel so damn all alone now with goofy electrical issues in a 53 ..........................:-missingt

If you look at how these F100 cabs are mounted to the frame you will notice that they are electrically isolated from the frame because of the rubber bushings in both the front and rear cab mounts. This makes for an interesting set of circumstances given that other items mounted inside that cab may have their own grounding sources. Without getting TOO technical suffice it to say that we all should have grounding straps on our trucks that run from the frame to the cab so that we know that all portions of the cab are at the same electrical potential as the frame to which the battery connects. I think that we all know to have a "bonding strap" to the engine, but how many of us bond the cab to the chassis?

So the little truck on my fob got hot as it touched the plastic knobs on the radio? I never heard of such a thing.....I will look into it in the am and hope it is not a big deal....and after reading the above..will put my keychain on a diet....haha

I don't think it can be from touching the plastic knob. Is it possoble that it was touching something that would ground it. Maybe the dash or the shaft of the radio knob. Current flow through it is the only thing I can think of that would heat it enough to melt the plastic.
It's a really strange happening but there is good explanation somewhere.

It doesn't matter if the vehicle is positive or negative ground. What is happening is that either your radio or key switch is hot in respect to the other. This could be the radio or you ignition switch. Get a test light and look for potential between the two places. If it lights up then check for potential between each device and ground. Ground should be the dash and body metal of the truck. You need to do this with the truck runing as it was when it happened. If the radio is not stock and maybe a negative ground unit it might have been mounted electrically isolated so it would work with the positive grond system. This would have made the controls electrically hot in respect to the truck. This is just one possibility. I wouldn't drive it or leave the battery hooked up until you know what the problem is. Your truck could end up being a crispy critter.

Later Man...

I have no knowledge of electrical issues, but how about a pic of this key fob?

Any clue where he found it?

Before or after the incident ???

The key fob is just aa key chain with a small probably 1/64th size of a 56 ford f100.
Probably got it on ebay -as I have sen them a time or two.

The radio is not stock....it is bolted under dash just below the key. The radio so far has not worked. I am going to check this out today....befoore it melts something worse. Bill and thanks

I put a test light on the key to the radio with key off and then on --and the light lights up...as hot
The test light on radio to wiper knob ..says hot.
So now what? Do I put a ground strap from cab to frame?
Do I disconnect the radio? I am installing a muffler now and will see what you tell me to do next......thanks /Bill

Sounds like you have a negative ground radio installed in a positive ground truck. Any further attempts to "ground" the two together will result in more things getting melted. Check the radio and make see if it is in fact a negative ground...if it was made any time after the mid-fifties it will be. If it is a negative ground radio then remove it from the system.