Old mercury mariner 25 HP fuse blowing

[Dealmaker5]

Hello , hopefully someone can assist with my issue here as I have a short to ground somewhere and have tested and gone through the whole wiring on the engine and throttle assembly looking for shorts . As of now , the fuse blows ( 20 amp ) engine area , when the key switch gets turned on . ( when solenoid wires are disconnected the fuse does not blow ) leading me to believe that the short is not in the ignition wire going to the solenoid. I took the key switch out and metered every cable with success - no shorts . Replaced solenoid with new one . - soon to replace reticfier tomorrow. Assuming old rectifier was the issue for blowing 20 amp fuse . So I have just about gone through everything that I can think of and I am still blowing fuses but open to suggestions as to how I can get this solved . Thank you

 

[Dealmaker5]

Well , I thought I would get some responses but I did not . Anyway - I solved the issue . It was the kill wire coming from the start switch into the engine just on top of the carb where it is soldered to . Just below this area the wire was touching the engine and melted the coating causing a short to ground . Once fixed - engine fired right up and no more blown fuses . Perhaps someone can benefit from this .