Looks to be part of a broken park brake switch.

 

Yep, busted parking brake warning light switch.

 

Ok guys. Thanks for the info. I'll ck it out in the morning.

 

That's it. Working on it. Thanks

 

While you are under there, I would get the hole that the oil line and whatever passes through protected with a rubber grommet and then seal it up and then move the wire on the right side of the one fuse over to the left side of the fuse.

With no grommet and seal on the firewall hole, you run a good chance of the metal edge rubbing through the line and then having some real problems. By putting in a grommet, this will keep the sharp edge of the hole away from the fragile lines. By then coming back and sealing the hole, less air will get through this hole as well as any water and dust into the interior.

On the wire you have under the right side of the fuse, that terminal clip is not protected by the fuse, nor the wire under that clip. By moving it to the other side, now that fuse will protect what is in the car already and also your added wire.

One more thing as it's hard to see in the photo, but is the small fuse on the bottom left OK. It sorta looks like foil is wrapped on it which is not a good thing.

Jim

 

For sure. The photo was taken 1 or 2 days after I got it running and after a shake down drive. The wire and tubes are now rapped in fuel line and will be sealed with a little spray foam. As for the wires at the fuel box and the fuse that is wrapped all will be corrected in due time, the rapped fuse first.
There is a lot of info for me to go though and I appreciate the input. Thank you.

 

Awesome advice, Jim. But why won't the right side of that fuse not provide protection to that clip but the left side will? I assume it's the opposite on the left fuse column?

Definitely need to lose the foil if that's what that is (and it looks like it is).

 

I think it would be nice if the fuse block was laid out like some home fuse/breaker panels, but it's not.

Here is the fuse block on my 1968 Nova:

and here are the taps for adding on electrical circuits:

Starting at the top tap, this is a battery or constant 12V terminal tap and it is protected by the fuse on the left as that circuit is for the cigarette lighter/courtesy light which works all of the time and not like the fuse labeled to the right which is the heater/AC fuse.

The next tap is for an accessory 12V supply and here this tap is protected by the fuse to the right which is the radio fuse. It is not protected by the fuse on the left which is for your taillights.

The third tap down is an ignition 12V supply and here the tap is protected by the fuse on the right which is the directional signal and reverse light fuse. It is not protected by the fuse on the left which is the stop/hazard fuse as this is a constant 12V fuse.

The last tap is for illumination and this one is next to the small length fuse on the lower portion of the fuse block.

Yep, it's confusing and has no real standardization.

Even when I'm working on a new vehicle and I have to tap into the fuse block I try and use existing taps which are fuse protected and in the few occasions I have had to use fuse taps, I remove the fuse, see which of the two terminals of the fuse holder lights up and then go to the side that does NOT light up as this will be the side protected by the fuse.

Always when in doubt, verify and check things with a meter or test light but those taps in the fuse block were there to add different things like the factory cruise control, rear defroster, and other things.

If you look at the picture of my fuse block, you can see I added a right angle terminal to the LPS terminal and this was to run a dimmable light on my heater controls as my car did not have that option and I was tired of not being able to see it in the dark. When I added an underseat stereo I also used some more right angle terminals and now am plugged into the BAT terminal and the ACC terminal so if needed I can remove it and no one will be the wiser.

Jim

 

Jim, LPS is the dash light terminal eh? I never knew that, that could be handy some day. Is that terminal also dimmable?

 

On my second picture you can see a right angle 1/4" terminal crimped onto a brown wire. I have this brown wire going to a small light socket in my heater controls to light it up and when I pull out the headlight switch to turn on the instrument panel lights, this added light also comes on AND dims when the headlight switch is rotated. I used the same wattage bulb in the heater control as what is in the speedometer cluster so the brightness is even.

Jim

 

Another thing I'll add, is the original taps in the middle can only handle so much amperage and if you go adding to these, or even tapping into the backside or adding terminals into unused slots, is do the math so that things do not become overloaded and NEVER add something onto those slots and then increase the factory fuse size protecting that tap and wiring connected to it. GM never designed the fuse block for people to randomly just add things they wanted and it has to be designed right so existing wiring and parts such as the ignition switch and terminals do not become overloaded.

Jim

 

Good info. Thanks Jim