commando1
Old Man with a Hat
It's a well known serious problem to everyone that's been around these cars for a while.
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I got a really bad surprise today
- Thread starter 70NPORT
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70NPORT
Old Man with a Hat
Well gang, here's what I found this morning under the hood this morning...
This is that large blk wire that terminates on the "bat" prong on the back of the alternator. Over time it have somehow got into the position where it was rubbing on part of the upper control arm; and the metal had actually worn away the sheathing. It was wide open and crusty with bare wire exposed and touching the control arm.
Oh...hold on to your hats, it gets better....
the same wire manged to cross another one and over time "fused" together. When I gently divorced the two that's what I saw (on the left). By some stupid dumb *** luck the second wire's insulation was still intact where it was crossed by the blk alt wire. Also the ring connector that secures to the batt terminal was bent completely back so that its wiring was also exposed to the elements.
I can't explain the crossed wiring, but the wiring that rubbed it self raw most have been slowly doing so. I remember just before the event occurred (when car shut down) we had made a hard right turn (exiting of highwy on to a county rd), as soon as we straighten out and preceded down the road...it happened. As you know the alt is on the right hand side of my car. So the insulation finally gave up and exposed the wiring to metal. When I first noticed this under the hood this morning, the exposed section of wire was firmly stuck to the control arm metal.
So, hoping this was the culprit. Not finished yet, but I am highly suspect of this area.
This is that large blk wire that terminates on the "bat" prong on the back of the alternator. Over time it have somehow got into the position where it was rubbing on part of the upper control arm; and the metal had actually worn away the sheathing. It was wide open and crusty with bare wire exposed and touching the control arm.
Oh...hold on to your hats, it gets better....
the same wire manged to cross another one and over time "fused" together. When I gently divorced the two that's what I saw (on the left). By some stupid dumb *** luck the second wire's insulation was still intact where it was crossed by the blk alt wire. Also the ring connector that secures to the batt terminal was bent completely back so that its wiring was also exposed to the elements.
I can't explain the crossed wiring, but the wiring that rubbed it self raw most have been slowly doing so. I remember just before the event occurred (when car shut down) we had made a hard right turn (exiting of highwy on to a county rd), as soon as we straighten out and preceded down the road...it happened. As you know the alt is on the right hand side of my car. So the insulation finally gave up and exposed the wiring to metal. When I first noticed this under the hood this morning, the exposed section of wire was firmly stuck to the control arm metal.
So, hoping this was the culprit. Not finished yet, but I am highly suspect of this area.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Good job of hunting that down.
I know tracing wiring problems can be the most frustrating and time consuming PITA jobs there is.
I know tracing wiring problems can be the most frustrating and time consuming PITA jobs there is.
Great. That won't be too hard to repair. At least it didn't burn through the firewall or worse and burn the entire car up.
70NPORT
Old Man with a Hat
Yeah, guess I lucked out in that aspect. I think I'm going double wrap that wire so that this doesn't happen again.
polara71
Old Man with a Hat
:VB toast: .........I wanna see you on CSR doing burnouts by Wednesday
70NPORT
Old Man with a Hat
Lol, I still need to yank out the fried batt cable, so maybe Thursday, ROFL:icon_thumright:
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If those weren't the source of all your problems I'd be suprised! I hope you find no more suprises.
Routing cables and hoses is so important. I replaced all the fuel hoses on mine and started it up to check for leaks. The fuel hose from the fuel filter was a tad too long and shifted a bit and in a matter of 30 seconds the alt belts almost rubbed all the way through the fuel hose. I was lucky and caught it. Disaster averted.
70NPORT
Old Man with a Hat
I'm knocking on wood and hoping that was it. I've done a pretty thorough visual check, but I haven't done any ohmmeter tests yet..once I'm done with that I'll swap out the pos & neg cables for a new pair. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to be forced to splice the new batt cable fuse link in with what's left of the old/remaining fusible link......b/c on my car it (fusible link wire) separates from the pos cable and is physically bundled into a separate cable trunk.
In this pic..it looks like that's exactly what was done..splice into existing fuse wire..
...if anyone has better suggestion I'd love to hear it...
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70NPORT
Old Man with a Hat
I hear ya, I had to reroute a fuel line this past summer because of damn vapor lock. Made the change and vapor lock went away. It has become a real PITA before I changed it.
Wildaugust
Senior Member
I'm glad you found the problem. Hopefully that is the extent of the damage.
BillGrissom
Active Member
It could have just been old and corroded, which increased the resistance and power dissipation and .... I think you can get them in bubble packs in auto parts stores. Another option is to put an inline fuse holder and a large blade fuse. I would guess a 50 A fuse would work unless you have a thumper audio system.
But before that, measure the resistance to ground with the key switch on (not in crank). If <1 ohm with headlights and other accessories off, you probably have a short to gnd. Find it first so you don't blow $2 fuses. Can get a multimeter cheap or free at Harbor Freight.
If you learned just a little bit of electricity, you could have saved the time and cost of a tow. Running a jumper wire direct from BATT+ to the upstream side of the ballast resistor (other wires off) would have powered your ignition system and it is simple to jumper the starter relay.
But before that, measure the resistance to ground with the key switch on (not in crank). If <1 ohm with headlights and other accessories off, you probably have a short to gnd. Find it first so you don't blow $2 fuses. Can get a multimeter cheap or free at Harbor Freight.
If you learned just a little bit of electricity, you could have saved the time and cost of a tow. Running a jumper wire direct from BATT+ to the upstream side of the ballast resistor (other wires off) would have powered your ignition system and it is simple to jumper the starter relay.
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70NPORT
Old Man with a Hat
well, lesson learned I guess - although from my standpoint, I'm not so sure how prudent it would have been to try and run jumper wires here and there, on a 40+ yr old car that still has OE wiring (and maybe other fault areas-at the time there was no way to know), in an attempt to defeat a fault condition that was meant to occur for a very specific and serious reason. No, I'm glad I got her home safe and sound without having to worry about "what's next" because of a quick side of the road temporary fix. And the tow wasn't that bad, my insurance covered it......
N-a-t-i-o-n-w-i-d-e was on my side.
Agree 100%. You did the right thing. Jumper wires on the side of the road is begging to catch her on fire. Get her home, take a deep breath, get rid of that crazy 1,000 volts to the gauge deal & move on.
Nationwide is not your friend btw. I deal with insurance companies for a living & I live in Columbus, nationwide's home town/headquarters. They are NOT on your side.
70NPORT
Old Man with a Hat
Nationwide is not your friend btw. I deal with insurance companies for a living & I live in Columbus, nationwide's home town/headquarters. They are NOT on your side.[/QUOTE]
They sure as heck were last Friday at around 4:35 pm
They sure as heck were last Friday at around 4:35 pm
They sure as heck were last Friday at around 4:35 pm[/QUOTE]
Road side assistance is pretty easy to get right. I hope that you don't have to file a serious claim.
They made the front page of the Columbus Dispatch for not honoring their policies. They remained unphased & continued on forward with their policy of collecting premiums without paying fair claims.
What's your opinion on Geico?
70NPORT
Old Man with a Hat
Road side assistance is pretty easy to get right. I hope that you don't have to file a serious claim.
They made the front page of the Columbus Dispatch for not honoring their policies. They remained unphased & continued on forward with their policy of collecting premiums without paying fair claims.[/QUOTE]
Well, I appreciate the heads up. I've never had any problems with any claims with them. I guess perhaps things are done a different way down there in your neck of the woods. All I know is that Friday the agent said "your covered, and we'll get a flatbed out there asap", which is exactly what happened.
I'll keep an eye out for any funny stuff though.
Do you have her running yet?
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