1989 bfn wiring issues

Sounds like a loose ground wire.

Do you have a link to your restore thread?

It sounds like you potentially have a couple things going on.

The red wire, or constant positive comes from the engine to the dash, as part of the engine harness.
It goes to the input side of the push button breaker

Then comes from the output side of the breaker, to input side of the key, horn switch, bilge switch, nav switch etc. Usually in a daisy chain format. Meaning that the wire does jumps from the input side of one switch to the input side of the next, etc.

As far as your switches, something got broken or was not connected. Remember, these switches aren't grounded, they just switch positive to the accessory. The other side of the accessory is then grounded.

As far as the key, either the key itself is defective, or you have constant positive going to the output side of the key. Or you have constant hot positive (Red) going directly to ignition Switched Positive (Purple) somewhere along the line.

tflyon2 wrote: ... except for the large gauge wire is separate (no metal bridge). Thanks .

I'm going to say that's probably your issue. Somone probably used a Terminal Block, which is meant to separate the indiviudal circuits, in place of a Bus Bar, which is Meant to unify everything connected to it.

The only question is whether or not there are actually separate functions going to that strip/bar (no pun intended). If everything is for ground, they should all be tied together. Pics would help. Phone-->Email Yourself-->Login in to email from real computer--> Drag pics to your desktop-->Upload using full post button and Arrow Tree icon.

A true bus bar should look like this:

Left one= Stereo, Middle I'm not sure, blower maybe? The right one is the horn.

Yeah, the ignition breaker supplies the key. But, it has the advantage of supplying other switches like the blower and bilge without the key being in.

i can't believe Brian didn't link his own thread! lol.

He has pics of his bus bar. I show a diagram of my terminal strip. I wanted to just get it done and none of the local stores had a bar, that's why i used the strip, but had to jump each part of the strip. My original '89 SpN wiring was just pig tailed all together. I can't say for certain, but it would make sense that the original wiring in the BFN would have been the same.

The middle icon...is that possibly a heater?