Pull the radio and take a look.

Once in another vehicle I had the po installed an aftermarket radio and the dimmer wire from the headlight switch which was unused for the new radio, was touching the metal brace..

 

 

You can also check all of your fuses. If there was a short that caused smoking hopefully it blew one of your fuses. If one of your fuses is blown start with that circuit.

 

 

That's no good!

Post a pic when you get a chance.

 

 

when my 88 did that it was the hot wire that feeds 30 amp fuse that powers the Heater blower,. that main power leg splits in the fuse box and powers 4-5 other fuses.
AC, blower motor, brake lights, and a few other things

 

So what did you do to fix that? Did you just remove the hot wire? Replace the fuse box? What were your steps to solve it?

 

i removed the smoked wire from the fuse box, and soldered in a maxi fuse holder then connected all the other taps to the other end of the maxi holder. it was only supposed to be a temporary fix until i got home, as i was 400 miles away on a wide load escort.
as with most of my other temporary repairs, it became a permanent repair because it never gave me any more problems. 20 years and still holding.
but when i replace the cab i am going to use the wiring harness in the new cab, as it is uncut and all original out of a truck that only had 23,000 miles on it.
the owners son "borrowed" the truck in 91 and hit a tree. the father backed it into the barn and left it there for 21 years.
my friend bought it for the engine and trans and sold me the sheet metal.

 

 

Have you checked the plug on the headlight switch?

They're bad about melting and shorting

 

I also had a blower motor speed switch melt down. I don't know if it's the rattling cause by the diesel engine or just poor engineering, but the wiring in our trucks strikes me as pathetic.

 

The blower motor has excessive current draw and is the cause of the circuit and fuse meltdown. The motor needs to be replaced. I have done the fuse bypass as mentioned by TJC Transport with with good results.

 

The Wires seem pretty shot so I am replacing the pigtail switch in the main headlight switch but noticed this green yellow wire as burn all the way up to the wire harness