On a slight side-note:
"...It had an inline fuse that never blew. INstead, it would just get super
hot and melt the plastic fuse holder..."
My headlamp switch did something similar - got incredibly hot and started to
melt stuff. This can happen if you get a slightly poor connection, possibly
due to a bit of corrosion between two contacts. The corrosion creates a
resistance, and we all know what happens when you try to pass a decent-size
current through a resistance - it gets hot! (After all, that's how filament
light bulbs work). The current was not enough to blow any fuses (after all,
the circuit still can't pass any more current than the headlamp, in my case,
can pass). For this to happen the resistance needs to be just right - too
low, and it won't get hot, too high, and it won't allow much current to pass
(the heat generated is equal to resistance x current^2). You'll get the
most heat if the resistance is about the same as the resistance of the main
load on that circuit.
Richard
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