Do I have a Short?

[73-se]

I've been working on getting my '73 on the road but I still have a few more details. I recently noticed one big red wire that seems to get pretty warm when the cars running. It seems to come basically from the battery (always hot), goes thru firewall and toward ignition inside column. My horn doesn't work but this may be unrelated... I havent tested them yet. Anyway I've heard that some of these old electrical systems have some sort of resistance wire and I don't want to start tearing it apart if that's what I've found! Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jeramy

[IBsmokin]

well if you open your engine bay and you see this I think you have a pair of shorts

[Chryco Psycho]

clean the terminals  where the red wires connects at the firewall & at the bottom of the column , it helps to coat them with dielectric grease to keep them clean after

[Nacho-RT74]

clean the terminals, use also a sand paper and get them tight ( female terminals )...

[KMPX2]

It is very common for that wire to get very hot and melt

[73-se]

Thanks for the advice. It just seemed kind of sketchy that the ignition power would get hot like that, but I guess the technology is pretty old. I'll clean everything up and see if that cools it down a bit.