You know you've arrived at C3 ownership...
03-17-2014, 11:00 AM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
You know you've arrived at C3 ownership...
...when you're not bothered by the possibility of your Corvette burning down by the side of the freeway and accept it as the 'new normal'...
Of course, there was some excitement at getting the battery unhooked as soon as possible, but Patro46's burning wires and forum member's RU7376vettes may have provided what I need to find once I dig into the dash.
Originally Posted by RU7376vettes
"You will have to remove the dash panels to really check, this is a job! But needed to find the source. I had one smoke on a 76 and found a burned wire inside the bundle wrapping in the Speedo/tach area. It turned out to be an "Unfused" brown wire that provided power feed to excite the alternator which turned out to be the fault. I am certain that if I hadn't taken the time to tear it apart the car would have burned. You need to find the charred wiring to help determine what caused the smoke..."
It happened to me yesterday. Sassy decided to test my mettle (again) and the volt meter on the car, has been acting really weird. It keeps fluctuating between zero and full voltage and then it's normal for a long time. I even checked it the other day! with my B&K DVM and it was showing 14.2V.
So coming back up the freeway, the needle quit moving. Steady voltage showing. Beautiful warm Sunday morning. I have the window down and my arm out and I thought of my East Coast and Midwest Corvette brother's, happy to just have a little peek at Spring. I'm cruising and the car is running perfectly on the freeway.
Suddenly, the horn starts blaring, can't stop it! Then smoke starts pouring out of the upper left part of the dash! It smells strong of electrical burning and I'm pulling over, lane by lane, trying to get to the right, with the horn still wailing away.
I get there and shut it off, dumping stuff out of the back and trying to get to the battery compartment and of course, it stops smoking, I disconnect it and soon the CHP pulls over behind me. Yep, I'm ok and soon he drives off. Had to get it towed back to the shop, no use trying to even fix it on the side of the road. There's not much of a shoulder and cars are whizzing by less than four feet away. Not worth getting creamed by some distracted idiot (and there's many of them here in California!).
So it was intriguing to read the other burning Corvette thread here this morning. Oddly enough, the whole thing didn't bother me. It's ok, we'll take the dash apart and it happened, right at the top of the dash too, right above the speedo and tach. I didn't see any burnt wires around the steering column at all. We'll open it up this week and see what it is. The brown wire, unfused, sure sounds like the first suspect! Everything was tight and right, when we put the dash together many months ago.
Of course, there was some excitement at getting the battery unhooked as soon as possible, but Patro46's burning wires and forum member's RU7376vettes may have provided what I need to find once I dig into the dash.
Originally Posted by RU7376vettes
"You will have to remove the dash panels to really check, this is a job! But needed to find the source. I had one smoke on a 76 and found a burned wire inside the bundle wrapping in the Speedo/tach area. It turned out to be an "Unfused" brown wire that provided power feed to excite the alternator which turned out to be the fault. I am certain that if I hadn't taken the time to tear it apart the car would have burned. You need to find the charred wiring to help determine what caused the smoke..."
It happened to me yesterday. Sassy decided to test my mettle (again) and the volt meter on the car, has been acting really weird. It keeps fluctuating between zero and full voltage and then it's normal for a long time. I even checked it the other day! with my B&K DVM and it was showing 14.2V.
So coming back up the freeway, the needle quit moving. Steady voltage showing. Beautiful warm Sunday morning. I have the window down and my arm out and I thought of my East Coast and Midwest Corvette brother's, happy to just have a little peek at Spring. I'm cruising and the car is running perfectly on the freeway.
Suddenly, the horn starts blaring, can't stop it! Then smoke starts pouring out of the upper left part of the dash! It smells strong of electrical burning and I'm pulling over, lane by lane, trying to get to the right, with the horn still wailing away.
I get there and shut it off, dumping stuff out of the back and trying to get to the battery compartment and of course, it stops smoking, I disconnect it and soon the CHP pulls over behind me. Yep, I'm ok and soon he drives off. Had to get it towed back to the shop, no use trying to even fix it on the side of the road. There's not much of a shoulder and cars are whizzing by less than four feet away. Not worth getting creamed by some distracted idiot (and there's many of them here in California!).
So it was intriguing to read the other burning Corvette thread here this morning. Oddly enough, the whole thing didn't bother me. It's ok, we'll take the dash apart and it happened, right at the top of the dash too, right above the speedo and tach. I didn't see any burnt wires around the steering column at all. We'll open it up this week and see what it is. The brown wire, unfused, sure sounds like the first suspect! Everything was tight and right, when we put the dash together many months ago.
03-17-2014, 11:25 AM
#2
Race Director
...when you're not bothered by the possibility of your Corvette burning down by the side of the freeway and accept it as the 'new normal'...
Of course, there was some excitement at getting the battery unhooked as soon as possible, but Patro46's burning wires and forum member's RU7376vettes may have provided what I need to find once I dig into the dash.
Originally Posted by RU7376vettes
"You will have to remove the dash panels to really check, this is a job! But needed to find the source. I had one smoke on a 76 and found a burned wire inside the bundle wrapping in the Speedo/tach area. It turned out to be an "Unfused" brown wire that provided power feed to excite the alternator which turned out to be the fault. I am certain that if I hadn't taken the time to tear it apart the car would have burned. You need to find the charred wiring to help determine what caused the smoke..."
It happened to me yesterday. Sassy decided to test my mettle (again) and the volt meter on the car, has been acting really weird. It keeps fluctuating between zero and full voltage and then it's normal for a long time. I even checked it the other day! with my B&K DVM and it was showing 14.2V.
So coming back up the freeway, the needle quit moving. Steady voltage showing. Beautiful warm Sunday morning. I have the window down and my arm out and I thought of my East Coast and Midwest Corvette brother's, happy to just have a little peek at Spring. I'm cruising and the car is running perfectly on the freeway.
Suddenly, the horn starts blaring, can't stop it! Then smoke starts pouring out of the upper left part of the dash! It smells strong of electrical burning and I'm pulling over, lane by lane, trying to get to the right, with the horn still wailing away.
I get there and shut it off, dumping stuff out of the back and trying to get to the battery compartment and of course, it stops smoking, I disconnect it and soon the CHP pulls over behind me. Yep, I'm ok and soon he drives off. Had to get it towed back to the shop, no use trying to even fix it on the side of the road. There's not much of a shoulder and cars are whizzing by less than four feet away. Not worth getting creamed by some distracted idiot (and there's many of them here in California!).
So it was intriguing to read the other burning Corvette thread here this morning. Oddly enough, the whole thing didn't bother me. It's ok, we'll take the dash apart and it happened, right at the top of the dash too, right above the speedo and tach. I didn't see any burnt wires around the steering column at all. We'll open it up this week and see what it is. The brown wire, unfused, sure sounds like the first suspect! Everything was tight and right, when we put the dash together many months ago.
Of course, there was some excitement at getting the battery unhooked as soon as possible, but Patro46's burning wires and forum member's RU7376vettes may have provided what I need to find once I dig into the dash.
Originally Posted by RU7376vettes
"You will have to remove the dash panels to really check, this is a job! But needed to find the source. I had one smoke on a 76 and found a burned wire inside the bundle wrapping in the Speedo/tach area. It turned out to be an "Unfused" brown wire that provided power feed to excite the alternator which turned out to be the fault. I am certain that if I hadn't taken the time to tear it apart the car would have burned. You need to find the charred wiring to help determine what caused the smoke..."
It happened to me yesterday. Sassy decided to test my mettle (again) and the volt meter on the car, has been acting really weird. It keeps fluctuating between zero and full voltage and then it's normal for a long time. I even checked it the other day! with my B&K DVM and it was showing 14.2V.
So coming back up the freeway, the needle quit moving. Steady voltage showing. Beautiful warm Sunday morning. I have the window down and my arm out and I thought of my East Coast and Midwest Corvette brother's, happy to just have a little peek at Spring. I'm cruising and the car is running perfectly on the freeway.
Suddenly, the horn starts blaring, can't stop it! Then smoke starts pouring out of the upper left part of the dash! It smells strong of electrical burning and I'm pulling over, lane by lane, trying to get to the right, with the horn still wailing away.
I get there and shut it off, dumping stuff out of the back and trying to get to the battery compartment and of course, it stops smoking, I disconnect it and soon the CHP pulls over behind me. Yep, I'm ok and soon he drives off. Had to get it towed back to the shop, no use trying to even fix it on the side of the road. There's not much of a shoulder and cars are whizzing by less than four feet away. Not worth getting creamed by some distracted idiot (and there's many of them here in California!).
So it was intriguing to read the other burning Corvette thread here this morning. Oddly enough, the whole thing didn't bother me. It's ok, we'll take the dash apart and it happened, right at the top of the dash too, right above the speedo and tach. I didn't see any burnt wires around the steering column at all. We'll open it up this week and see what it is. The brown wire, unfused, sure sounds like the first suspect! Everything was tight and right, when we put the dash together many months ago.
"Sassy" is a SOB!
03-17-2014, 11:28 AM
#3
Team Owner
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03-17-2014, 12:46 PM
#4
Nam Labrat
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fire extinguishers are your friend!
03-17-2014, 12:57 PM
#5
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
OH YEAH!!! Just a coincidence, I picked a small fire extinguisher up at the Drag Races LAST WEEKEND! Along with a clamp. I hadn't clamped it down yet, but it was in the car. Sure 'nuff, I'm needing it the following weekend! The smoke stopped after shutting off the car and disconnecting the battery. I was ready though!
03-17-2014, 01:04 PM
#6
OH YEAH!!! Just a coincidence, I picked a small fire extinguisher up at the Drag Races LAST WEEKEND! Along with a clamp. I hadn't clamped it down yet, but it was in the car. Sure 'nuff, I'm needing it the following weekend! The smoke stopped after shutting off the car and disconnecting the battery. I was ready though!
Note to self: buy battery quick disconnect and fire extinguisher...today.
I replaced the wiring harnesses in the engine compartment on my 73...probably should have gotten the dash wiring while I was at it...
03-17-2014, 01:18 PM
#8
Race Director
03-17-2014, 01:25 PM
#9
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
All Corvette's should have a fire ext. on board. I cruise the insurance auction sites, like Copart often and guess what I see burned up, the most often?
Hmmm....
Out of 92 Corvettes, eight of them were 'Burn'...! Or nearly one out of ten!
1973 C3:
2006 C6 Z06:
1989 C4:
And on and on....
Hmmm....
Out of 92 Corvettes, eight of them were 'Burn'...! Or nearly one out of ten!
1973 C3:
2006 C6 Z06:
1989 C4:
And on and on....
03-17-2014, 02:47 PM
#12
Race Director
03-17-2014, 04:30 PM
#13
Pro
Looking at those photos I guess you could say the up side is that there is a good source for "heat treated" bird cages. :-(
(The battery switch just made my list also)
(The battery switch just made my list also)
03-17-2014, 07:36 PM
#14
Melting Slicks
68/BB, All 68 Corvette owners should have a battery cut-off switch. GM, in it's ultimate wisdom, wired up the brand spanking new disappearing wiper system by controlling the wiper motor BY CUTTING THE GROUND!!! The wiper motor is ALWAYS HOT, even with the key off!!! Many 68's have burned up because of this. Strangely, they rewired the system in 69. Lou.
03-17-2014, 07:46 PM
#15
Instructor
Bought a cutoff switch 2 years ago and never have installed it. Just went out to the garage and found it and it will be installed tomorrow. Lots of bare metal in the switch. Why couldn't it be installed in the ground side. Even tho the circuits would still be energized, there could not be a current flow without the ground return to the battery.
03-17-2014, 08:05 PM
#16
Team Owner
Bought a cutoff switch 2 years ago and never have installed it. Just went out to the garage and found it and it will be installed tomorrow. Lots of bare metal in the switch. Why couldn't it be installed in the ground side. Even tho the circuits would still be energized, there could not be a current flow without the ground return to the battery.
03-17-2014, 09:01 PM
#18
Race Director
Member Since: Mar 2003
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When you remove a battery from a car you should ALWAYS disconnect the negative terminal first and then the positive.
The reason for this is because as soon as you disconnect the negative terminal there is no way you can accidentally short the battery when removing the positive terminal.
As far as kill switches go it really doesn't matter because either terminal will kill power from the battery.
BUT.... If you put it on the positive terminal the battery negative terminal is still connected to the chassis of the car so if anything conductive comes in contact with the positive terminal and the chassis it will short the battery.
A lot of racing cars have a kill switch that can be activated from outside of the car... The idea is if you pull the switch, the electrical system in the car immediately dies.
In a crash the body of the car can become deformed enough to contact the positive terminal or cable clamp. Or the positive cable can be crushed inside the body somewhere.
But this battery "switch" is for shorts it has nothing to do with killing the engine, if the engine is running and you cut the battery off the car could still run from the alternator...until you turn off the key if you are able to turn off the key....this was a reason ford used those pesty switches that killed the fuel pump if the car got hit or hit something but sometimes a fast stop would trip those....happened in my 89 mustang something in the truck hit the switch.
I don't 1/2 *** this one, no 1.99 harbor fright switch or hard to do in a hurry terminal **** for my battery disconnect, I run the flaming river one.
Of course a fire extinguisher is like um, a gun or condom , It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.....
03-18-2014, 07:36 AM
#19
Instructor
When you remove a battery from a car you should ALWAYS disconnect the negative terminal first and then the positive.
The reason for this is because as soon as you disconnect the negative terminal there is no way you can accidentally short the battery when removing the positive terminal.
As far as kill switches go it really doesn't matter because either terminal will kill power from the battery.
BUT.... If you put it on the positive terminal the battery negative terminal is still connected to the chassis of the car so if anything conductive comes in contact with the positive terminal and the chassis it will short the battery.
A lot of racing cars have a kill switch that can be activated from outside of the car... The idea is if you pull the switch, the electrical system in the car immediately dies.
In a crash the body of the car can become deformed enough to contact the positive terminal or cable clamp. Or the positive cable can be crushed inside the body somewhere.
But this battery "switch" is for shorts it has nothing to do with killing the engine, if the engine is running and you cut the battery off the car could still run from the alternator...until you turn off the key if you are able to turn off the key....this was a reason ford used those pesty switches that killed the fuel pump if the car got hit or hit something but sometimes a fast stop would trip those....happened in my 89 mustang something in the truck hit the switch.
I don't 1/2 *** this one, no 1.99 harbor fright switch or hard to do in a hurry terminal **** for my battery disconnect, I run the flaming river one.
Of course a fire extinguisher is like um, a gun or condom , It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.....
The reason for this is because as soon as you disconnect the negative terminal there is no way you can accidentally short the battery when removing the positive terminal.
As far as kill switches go it really doesn't matter because either terminal will kill power from the battery.
BUT.... If you put it on the positive terminal the battery negative terminal is still connected to the chassis of the car so if anything conductive comes in contact with the positive terminal and the chassis it will short the battery.
A lot of racing cars have a kill switch that can be activated from outside of the car... The idea is if you pull the switch, the electrical system in the car immediately dies.
In a crash the body of the car can become deformed enough to contact the positive terminal or cable clamp. Or the positive cable can be crushed inside the body somewhere.
But this battery "switch" is for shorts it has nothing to do with killing the engine, if the engine is running and you cut the battery off the car could still run from the alternator...until you turn off the key if you are able to turn off the key....this was a reason ford used those pesty switches that killed the fuel pump if the car got hit or hit something but sometimes a fast stop would trip those....happened in my 89 mustang something in the truck hit the switch.
I don't 1/2 *** this one, no 1.99 harbor fright switch or hard to do in a hurry terminal **** for my battery disconnect, I run the flaming river one.
Of course a fire extinguisher is like um, a gun or condom , It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.....
03-18-2014, 08:21 AM
#20
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When you remove a battery from a car you should ALWAYS disconnect the negative terminal first and then the positive.
The reason for this is because as soon as you disconnect the negative terminal there is no way you can accidentally short the battery when removing the positive terminal.
As far as kill switches go it really doesn't matter because either terminal will kill power from the battery.
BUT.... If you put it on the positive terminal the battery negative terminal is still connected to the chassis of the car so if anything conductive comes in contact with the positive terminal and the chassis it will short the battery.
A lot of racing cars have a kill switch that can be activated from outside of the car... The idea is if you pull the switch, the electrical system in the car immediately dies.
In a crash the body of the car can become deformed enough to contact the positive terminal or cable clamp. Or the positive cable can be crushed inside the body somewhere.
But this battery "switch" is for shorts it has nothing to do with killing the engine, if the engine is running and you cut the battery off the car could still run from the alternator...until you turn off the key if you are able to turn off the key....this was a reason ford used those pesty switches that killed the fuel pump if the car got hit or hit something but sometimes a fast stop would trip those....happened in my 89 mustang something in the truck hit the switch.
I don't 1/2 *** this one, no 1.99 harbor fright switch or hard to do in a hurry terminal **** for my battery disconnect, I run the flaming river one.
Of course a fire extinguisher is like um, a gun or condom , It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.....
The reason for this is because as soon as you disconnect the negative terminal there is no way you can accidentally short the battery when removing the positive terminal.
As far as kill switches go it really doesn't matter because either terminal will kill power from the battery.
BUT.... If you put it on the positive terminal the battery negative terminal is still connected to the chassis of the car so if anything conductive comes in contact with the positive terminal and the chassis it will short the battery.
A lot of racing cars have a kill switch that can be activated from outside of the car... The idea is if you pull the switch, the electrical system in the car immediately dies.
In a crash the body of the car can become deformed enough to contact the positive terminal or cable clamp. Or the positive cable can be crushed inside the body somewhere.
But this battery "switch" is for shorts it has nothing to do with killing the engine, if the engine is running and you cut the battery off the car could still run from the alternator...until you turn off the key if you are able to turn off the key....this was a reason ford used those pesty switches that killed the fuel pump if the car got hit or hit something but sometimes a fast stop would trip those....happened in my 89 mustang something in the truck hit the switch.
I don't 1/2 *** this one, no 1.99 harbor fright switch or hard to do in a hurry terminal **** for my battery disconnect, I run the flaming river one.
Of course a fire extinguisher is like um, a gun or condom , It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.....