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**DKheld** · February 28, 2009, 01:16 PM

....."he said that only one or two wires appear to be burnt, and he can fix that, and clean up the mess...."

Hate to hear the bad news but at least there is good news to go along with it. I keep a fire extinguisher under the front seat - would rather not see a wiring fire though.

Pouring the rain here and expecting snow later this weekend so mine is stuck in the garage for a different reason.......

Hope Yellow Rose is back on the road soon.

Eric,
Registry 5347

**Rockin Kev** · February 28, 2009, 01:20 PM

Hi,
ERIC! Trust me you are right you dont want to see a wire fault cause a fire, been there and lost on a grand scale, hope the cars back soon.
Kev.

**Dutchbird** · February 28, 2009, 01:55 PM

Ray, that's a bad view to see on Rose.
Glad to know it went OK without more trouble. (There could be much more if you look at the pics...)

Eric, I hope you don't have a fire extinguisher with powder, that stuff eats all the metal away in the future after using it. The consequences can be worse than the cause!

**JohnG** · February 28, 2009, 04:12 PM

Ray, you must have been devistated!! I am so sorry this happened to you!

Two thoughts: get a new wiring harness and fix things better than before the fire. I don't know if he was going to hand re-wire it (splicing and so on) but it would take less work and produce far better results to start from Square One.

Secondly, we might have a discussion about adding a master fuse to any of our cars. Where would it go and what amperage? I'll toss an opinion out that fuses are there to prevent so much current from flowing as to cause a fire. The old cars have exposed hot points in a number of places and serious current flow is a possibility.

I have a fire extinguisher too but I would rather have a fuse blow long before it's ever needed.

Thoughts???

JOhn

**scumdog** · February 28, 2009, 04:26 PM

Man, I'd be gutted if it was my car!!

Good luck getting it back on the road soon Ray, summer will be here soon and you'll want to cruise..

**YellowRose** · February 28, 2009, 05:51 PM

Just When You Think You Have It Made..

Thanks, guys.. I have already checked out the cost of a new dashboard wiring harness. About $600.. He says the damage is not bad, and that he can clean up the mess, fix any loose connections so they wont short out, replace any wires that need to be replaced, without replacing the whole wiring harness. If it gets to be to bad of a problem, then I have a new wiring harness in my future, it appears.

He thinks he should have it back in running condition on Monday, after working some more on it this morning.

**Anders** · February 28, 2009, 06:41 PM

What a nightmare! And what a good mechanic you have acting that quick

I once got some cables start smoking under the dash while driving ( a VW golf ) and the car burn down to the ground...
I agree with John that a master fuse seems to be the best solution for this.
A fire extinguisher is good, but first the conection with the battery must be disconected....

**Penelope** · February 28, 2009, 06:43 PM

I cannot believe the bad luck you have had with Rose, the only positive will be surely nothing else could go wrong! Hope she is back up and purring soon.

**tully** · February 28, 2009, 07:55 PM

sorry to hear

Sorry to hear about that, I know just how you feel, i have a under the dash harness around here if you need one let me know.

**Guest** · February 28, 2009, 08:16 PM

Guys,
Has anyone sit down and tried to figure out a way to put fuse box and new wires in these old Birds?

**Dan Leavens** · February 28, 2009, 08:28 PM

Ray I am terribly sorry that this situation has happened to Yellowrose and you must be devistated. The only good news is that apparently your mechanicappears to have good ethics and has agreed to repair the damage. While the dash is out now is a good time to inspect,all the wiring and connections that are exposed to prevent any other incidents
in the future.You will be cruisin with her in no time

**Guest** · February 28, 2009, 09:50 PM

Ray
Sorry to hear about your fire
You are a very lucky to have some one up there looking over you
What is the white out for in the picture
Bob M

**byersmtrco** · February 28, 2009, 10:18 PM

Thats a bummer Ray. Hope it gets resolved soon. The Dodge Charger I had as a kid caught on fire (more than once actually) but the bad one was the alternator wiring. Smoked the whole engine harness. As it turned out, I got a harness out of a Plymouth Satalite (very similar car) at the wrecking yard and had the whole deal changed out in about an hour (WITH the main power wire from the alt routed away from the exh/manifold)

**YellowRose** · March 1, 2009, 12:14 AM

Just When You Think You Have It Made..

I think my mechanic was using the white out to mark wires and connector blocks to help him make sure he got everything hooked back up right. It looks a lot worse than it actually is, he said. That black stuff on the wiring is that old tar like substance they used for waterproofing. And a lot of that is electrical tape that melted.

I offered him the use of the wiring chart for my Tbird but he said it was all pretty simple, that he is used to re-wiring old cars like this. He does a lot of old car and truck restorations. If he needs the chart, I will get it to him. He said he is going to inspect and fix any defective wiring and cap or seal off any bare or unused leads. He says when he gets done, it will be safe.

This could have been a lot worse, because, apparently, it only effected 1 or 2 wires, that I know of. I need to find out which actually caused the problem. He thought, initially, that it was the ballast resistor behind the problem. Then he said it might have been that when he re-installed the steering column that he might have damaged a wire in it. I may have to ask him to pull the steering column again and check out all that wiring..

As a result of this, I called my insurance company and had them triple the value on the car. I told them that I had put so much money into it since the purchase and it was now worth triple what I paid for it. It did not cost me a lot to increase the value. Now, should something else go wrong with that wiring, or it ends up in Mexico unexpectedly, I will get my investment back..

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Just When You Think You Have It Made..

Just When You Think You Have It Made..

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