What gauge wire?

[RangerSteve62]

OK... so i put in a push button starter in my 62.... I ran the hot from the old ignition to a cutoff swith. then cutoff switch to sylenoid and push button... Well I just finished venting my truck out because the hot wire went up in smoke.... What gauge wire do I need to run from the hot to prevent this from happening again? I am sure I also need a larger kill switch.... thanks

Steven

[Uncle Skip]

Ranger Steve.
Sounds like something else is wrong.
If you're just running a hot wire to the solenoid thru a switch, you're probably not drawing more than an amp or two.... just enough to energize the solenoid.
Sounds to me like you have a dead short somewhere.
Anyway, a 16 gauge wire should be plenty heavy for that duty.
BTW.
I have a post in hints and tricks about the load rating of all the gauges of wire if you want to try to look it up.

[62galxe]

Did you hook it to the small stud or large one ?

[RangerSteve62]

I should have mentioned, It was working just fine. My kill switch turned off the truck when I wanted to... and all was fine... I went to crank it today, and I was turning it over and all of a sudden.... poof!! smoke everywere....It burnt the entire hot wire... I know my theory is good.. but IDK how thick of wire I need to keep it from frying again.... I was using 16 gauge... Could it be that I put my radio to the same kill switch....was it pulling too much through that switch and blew it out...

Steve

[deadheadno1]

You do know that to use a push to start button you have to use a non grounding solinoid switch or have an isolated secondary circut. Tom