Heater (electrical) Questions ???

[Sicboy]

I bought my '66 at the beginning of this summer, and up until now I had never turned on my heater fan...mainly due to the fan control lever being broken off. Recently, the temps have dipped into the teens, so I decided to try and turn on the fan by sticking a little screwdriver in the slot where the lever would be and move the broken lever into the on position. It worked...the fan operated in both low and high mode.

Here's my problem...while the fan was on high, I noticed that the generator light was dimly lit. When I turned the ignition key off, the engine didn't immediately shut off and ran a few seconds longer while the key was out. Then I realized the key was hot. So, I reached up behind the dash and felt the back of the ignition switch and it was burning hot. I let the switch cool down, then tried the fan in the low position and drove a few miles. The gen light was no longer on, but the ignition was still hot, but not as hot as when the fan was on high. Can anyone tell me what the h*ll is going on?