OK guys, I need your help again. Driving the 71 in to the office this morning, I'm pulling into the right turn lane of a busy intersection and all of a sudden there's a pop, the lights go out (still dark at 5:45 am) and the engine dies. I coast around the corner and jump out to push it into a parking lot, and I notice smoke coming through the cowl vents. I pop the hood while I'm pushing, and there are flames down by the starter. I panic and turn the key off, which locks the steering wheel and almost causes me to push the car into some guys truck. I manage to get the key back in while the car's still rolling so I can steer again. I shoved it into a parking spot in a little strip mall and turned the key off. The flames went out (I buy a fire extinguisher for the car today). A guy at the gas station next door has a NHRA tag on the front of his truck, so I bum a wrench from him and disconnect the battery.

I haven't assesed the damage yet, but there's a bunch of soot everywhere under the hood. I was in a shirt and tie, so I didn't crawl around or under the thing to see what happened. Locked it up, called the wife to come get me, went home and got the Z06 and came to work. Called my neighbor w/ the flatbed tow truck and asked him to go get it for me. Now I guess I know what I'll be doing on my two days off this week.

Anybody else ever had anything like this happen? Any ideas what caused it and what kind of damage I can expect to see when I get home? I really appreciate any input. Hope everybody elses Monday is going a lot better than mine.

Thanks,

Jamey

 

Sounds like a dead short at the battery cable terminal on the solenoid. Check for loose connection there.

Good luck!

 

I have had that happen on other :chevy cars before. The terminal comes loose and it starts arcing and hitting everything it can down there.

I hope it's just the battery cable that was up in smoke. Even still, that will be a bitch to replace.

 

While you are in ther I changed all the nuts on the starter mtr and solonid to stainless nylocks,the short ones. They will not back off. If you cannot find them give me a call at the shop 615-255-3939 and I will send you some. :smash:

 

Unlike others that think it's the battery cable loose and shorted out the only thing it would carry is battery power, and that would ex plode the battery and fry a LOT more than just the underhood area....

NO, the fusible link is gawn....that's the link to the main battery power input wire (allways live) to the ignition switch and throug fuse block to things like lighting and cig lighter....what probably happened is the link blew and flamed a bunch of grease in the process....you luck it didn't take the car with it....
if not grease cause car was clean, it was limited to other plactics/rubber in the harness itself...again you lucky....Personally even though they exist still in MY car...I don't like fuse links.....just too much fire hazard....I"lll take a good fuse setup anyday....

look for short in wiring harness somewhere....hard to say...but I wonder if alternator is good at this point...good thing to disconnect first before restoring power when wiring ashes are sorted out.....

mrvette72@interstateweb.net


GENE

 

JameyZ28, just curious, what's the caused?

 

Good Call.
I replaced my main battery cable last year and was amazed at how ratty it had become in 30 short years.
After replacement, my starter spun faster and quicker.

 

REF. son's 72 454. We had a problem very much like yours. Our problem was chaffing of the hot wire from the coil to the starter. This is the wire that connects to the ignition coil and down to the starter. The wire makes a 90 degree turn over the sol, down to the connector. The wire chaffed and was causing a short. I would consider replacing all wires to the starter w/new harness. Glad yours didn't burn. We did have flames under the hood and ext. them quickly. vettdvr

 

Okay, here's the update. Finally got time to play w/ the 71 yesterday. Pulled the header and starter and checked out the wiring. The fusible link was gone, and one of the other wires to the starter was missing the insulation for about 6". I figured the insulation wore through and the wire touched the starter and caused the incedent. Replaced all 3 wires in that harness back up to the firewall, including a new section of fusible link. While I was at it, I installed new set of ceramic coated headers. Got everything back together (had to run open exhaust because the new headers are a different length than the old ones) and fired it up. It started right up after a few cranks. Everything seemed fine. Shut it down, moved the cars in the driveway so I could get out, and went to take it on a little open header cruise.

Fired it up again, it ran fine for a few seconds, backfired once, which I contributed to the open exhaust, and then it dies. No power to anything now. Just like when the first incedent occured, only this time without any smoke and fire. None of the new wires are fried. The new fusible link is still intact. The battery has juice at the terminals. It was now after 10:00 and I had been in the garage most of the day, so I went inside disgusted. WTF could be causing this? I really get tired of this.

I'm gonna start chasing down other possible shorts when I can bring myself to fool with it again. Any ideas where I should start? Also, should I expect to find that I also fried my MSD 6AL box? Maybe I should sell this heap and put my 71 Camaro back together.

Thanks for any help. Jamey

 

I Had the same thing happen to me. It was caused by the wire running from the starter to the alternator. It has somehow found its way against the manifold and melted through and shorted. The wiring harness had to be rebuilt, but the starter and alternator were ok. I put in a remote solenoid, so only one wire goes to the starter now. :cheers:

 

The MSD box is a good possibility, as you have already figured out MSD makes great equipment but it is very susceptible to stray voltage spikes I have experienced this on my race car, although if you lost power to every thing it's not the box. If you have power everywhere and no spark then I would suspect the box in that event Call MSD tech help they are nice people and helped me a bunch when I had problems. They actually repaired my box free of charge and paid the shipping all this and I had bought it second hand at a swap meet

Good Luck, Ietek :cool: