Almost lost it!!!!!!!!!!!

[dab67]

  I almost lost my 67 Camaro to a fire this weekend. I was driving it down the road when it started to hesitate and lose power. When I stepped on the gas it would accelerate and then backfire. To make a long story short. I lost all power to the car and had it towed to a garage. To my amazement the engine harness from the coil to the distributor, to the starter was completly fried!!!!
When they pulled the harness off the car, every time it back fired it blow a piece of wire apart and melted the harness. They said I was lucky I did not have a fire. Needless to say. I am in the process of ordering all new harnesses for the car. What it looks like happened was at some time in the past, someone spliced  into the starter cable to make it longer. The electric tape around this splice came loose and the wire started to short out against the starter. Lesson for today,,,,,,,,,,,,,make sure you check the harnesses of the car and see what kind of shape they are in also when you thinking of buying older car.

Dave

[ogbean]

Yeah... that sounds like an almost tragedy! Electrical systems are always being "rigged" up because most normal back yard mechanics dont realive the importance of them. Do a full inspection on it. U shouldnt have a hard time finding any replacement harnesses for it. And get that starter wire fixed... if ya have no starter wire, your starter dosent work, if your starter dosent work, you cant START your car, and if you cant do that u cant DRIVE your car.... and that just takes all the fun outa owning a camaro!

[dab67]

A complete new harness is in the process of being installed which includes the connection to the starter. Hopefully there was no other damage to the coil, distributor or any other electrical part on this harness. The other 'front end " harness for the lights, horn etc etc is fine according to the garage doing the install of the new harness. No splices, no cuts and no adds on. I still am ordering replacements for the three remaining major harness to be on the save side.Which would be the front harness, under dash harness and the rear harness. This could have been a tough tough lesson to learn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lakeholme]

Dave,

First, glad you are okay!  Second, equally glad you didn't have any significant fire damage to that great looking 67.

Your misfortune is a good lesson for all of us.  When I first got my 68 I had an auto electrical shop go over the wiring.  Even though the visual inspection looked okay, I still had them go through and clean up all the connections, etc.  It was amazing how much that improved the whole electrical system.  I knew the car had sat for at least a year or maybe a lot more than that.  Bad things can happen when a car just sits...

This also reminds me why it is good to carry a fire extinguisher in every car --classic and new.

Again, glad you are okay!

By the way, we got drenched the other week at the show at Lowe's Motor Speedway.  It rained like cats and dogs.  Not real fond of getting the car that wet.  At least, we did get a DPC plaque for our efforts

Phillip

[dab67]

Thanks Phillip:

Sorry to hear about the wet weather you had for your trip. I know you were pretty excited to be going. And yes I am checking into getting an extinguisher for the car, thanks for the concern. I am replacing the rear compartment harness in the next week or so and then I will definetly put in a new under dash harness this fall when we replace the interior and carpeting. That is normally where the splicing and "juryrigging" takes place. Even though my mechanic feels comfortable with what is in the car, I will feel a whole lot better knowing it has all been replaced. He also said there was no way anyone would have seen the splice in the starter cable wire unless you had actually pulled the harness off the starter in the first place. It was tucked up on the top side of the starter. Once he began threading the new harness in place, he could feel the melted plastic along part of the header and also on the top of the starter.

Dave

[lakeholme]

Wow! It may not seem that way, but you were lucky!

Where are you getting your new harnesses from?  Apparently, you've got somebody local doing it (or yourself?).

[dab67]

I purchased the harness through Rick's First Generation out of Atlanta, Georgia. Great company, I just ordered the rear harness along with a few other small items My mechanic, who is also my cousin owns a oil exchange garage. So I get to get my hands "somewhat" dirty. I get so far and he or one of his employees pitches in when I have trouble. The harness that burned up was pretty simple to put back in place. The rear one should be just a unplug, re-route and plug back in. The reason I am changing this one now, all the  light sockets are different shapes and colors. So we know it has been worked on. I have one original socket left on the harness. It is metal, not sure if you ever checked yours. The other three are all different colors. Who knows how far down the harness they "sliced and diced". And the price is not bad for what it could save!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dave