wires are metal ...

  I'll be opening up the harness wrap in strategic locations to determine the exact path that blue wire takes . That switch on the column may very well be a switch associated with the brake . One test I thought of last night while trying to get to sleep is to disconnect the plug on the column and see if the blue wire is grounded . I've never had to deal with wiring faults that much , this has been a really frustrating experience .

A word of caution, pretty sure the control for the torque converter lockup goes to a solenoid in the transmission. So it will show a very low ohm value that looks like a short circuit to a meter. It should draw about 0.5 amps when working.

If I recall correctly the wire harness plugs in from the top on the drivers side of the transmission. Maybe 6-8 inches farther to the rear from the shifter linkage. Check that it was plugged in correctly and that cable isn't pinched somewhere going towards the engine...

Big ass picture here showing the cable & connector in white:

That would be around 24 Ohms, which should show clearly on a decent digital meter. Subtract out the reading with the probes shorted

Schematic "Power Side Control #3" indicates that pin D will short to ground when the TCC Signal Switch operates. If the plug can be rotated, could pin D have been misconnected to pin B that brings power for the solenoid? The solenoid pin should show up as a low but not zero resistance to the case.

Check for any extra connections between the battery and radio. It could be a loose connection. You'll find your extra amperage going to warm that connection. Alt1: Run a separate fuse to a switched hot. Alt2: earphones and your phone/MP3 player are a cheap and easy pair.

Wild one, Jim.

And pay special attention to the place the wire is caught between the bell housing and engine block, right? ;)

  Catch up Larry , we've tracked it down to the converter lockup solenoid/wiring inside the trans . Got the new solenoid right here , just need a couple of days to get it installed ... figure it would be good to go ahead with the axle gear swap and installing the correct drive gears in the trans . That means I need about 3-5 days that I can do without the truck since I'm getting into stuff I've never done before .

That business of the trans lockup and radio being powered by the same fuse sounds an awful (and I do me awful) lot like my hundred year old house wiring. It's hard to label the panel when the house wiring has been wired somewhat like a bowl of spaghetti.

  I think it's more an auxiliary circuit , should have been marked "aux/radio" or somethin' . Next up is the heater fan , I might have pulled and left the fuse out while diagnosing . I hope . It was working so it's probably something simple/stupid that I've done .

Did you check if the misconnected plug was grounding the fused wire through the internal switch? The solenoid may not be bad.

When I worked on my truck's wiring I marked each connector that I had checked and cleaned by painting a spot of white nail polish on both halves and writing the connector number from the schematic.

  After correcting the orientation of the plug it still blows the fuse but with it unplugged it doesn't ... so I think I've either got a burned up coil or grounded wire somewhere . I need to change the oil and filter anyway , so I'll be able to check it all while I've got it open .

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The oil level on my older version is higher than the pan. So oil will start to run out soon as you crack the seal. Before I installed a drain plug I would loosen the bolts such that it would come loose at a strategic corner with a large catch pan located there. Even after some leaks out into the pan the darn thing is heavy with oil. It was always a MESS, hence adding a drain plug :)

  How did you install that drain plug ? I was thinking about TIG welding a bung in , but am concerned that it'll warp .

First time I tried brazing on a 1/2 inch nut. Didn't like at all how it looked, turned out. So I patched over the spot with maybe a 3/16 inch by 3 inch round punch out. I MIG'd that one in place using .025 wire. Threaded a 1/4 x 24 tpi hole and used matching bolt with aluminum washer. What I had on hand at the time. That held till the pan rusted out and started leaking...

The second time I used an 1/2 x 18 bolt with a 1/4 x 24 inch bolt through it to act as the drain plug. Some simple lathe work. Went in easy and hasn't leaked so far (maybe 6 years).

Some images here:

The other quick test that might save you some trouble is to see if any of the transmission pins look like a solenoid winding to a digital multimeter that reads low Ohms properly. Sometimes faults go away when you disassemble a device and you don't know how, or if, you fixed it.

For comparison I measured a GE 120V 60W incandescent light bulb as

16~17 Ohms (cold).

I've brazed them several times without a warlage issue. How's the lockup problem coming? Just got back from 3 week holiday.

Yeah, I saw that later that day, as I caught up.

Doublecheck that your shadetree didn't swap wires in the connector, JIC. Have fun!