Merc 115, Wire gage/size?

[FrankRocks]

So, my starter ground wire was completely fried to the point of it showing copper wire. Now, it seems that most wires at the sites I've been looking at show the part as obsolete. Curious, where could I find the gage/length of wires originally used? I bought a generic wire at autozone, and turns out that the starter now smokes, indicating to me that the wire isn't good enough/too long etc.. since it was a 20" wire, to replace I believe a 6".
25596 is one of the parts. There's some on ebay... but come on, $10 for a USED wire? I'm sure it's fine, but I'm sure I could find a generic replacement for a wire, am i wrong?

Infact, if someone could guide me in the direction for decent service manuals, that'd be awesome as well.
Outboard info:
1979 Merc 115.
Serial: 04571571
model: 1115627

thanks for any help/suggestions/ideas

 

[keith4216]

Buy a ft of 1 guage wire and cut to size then put some ends on it. I wonder why its burnt up? Starter haveing problems before, bad ground to start maybe?

 

[FrankRocks]

I assume that's what it was. I bought the boat like that, Maybe the wire was in the wrong spot, Honestly, I haven't seen a service manual with good pics of where the wiring SHOULD go.
I probably will just go with 1ga wire, probably buy a bit of it to replace a couple other wires just for safety sakes.

 

[Mercmx15]

http://www.maxrules.com/oldmercs/Wiring/1966ona/35.jpg