O SH#T FIRE!!!!

[Mean 318]

Well the plan was to take the Coronet for one last cruise before I pulled the motor. Everything went great until I pulled into the drive in. As soon as I shut her off smoke starts pouring out from under the hood!!!! So I try to start it to get it away from all of the other cars and the restaurant. All it does is turn over so I run out, pop the hood, pull the battery out, and run inside to get an extinguisher!!! Well there's isn't charged  so by the time I get back out to the car it is engulfed in smoke. ERRRRRRR all I could do is sit there and watch. Thank god all it did is burn up the wires and not to whole car!!!! Once the smoke cleared I took a look. All the wires from the alternator are burnt back to the fire wall, then I look under the dash and it burn all of the way into the dash, melting everything it was close to. It didn't pop any fuses. I just got it home and I don't even want to look at it! I think it is the alternator, the voltage regulator, or the ignition. I will pull it all apart and see what the hell happened, anyone else have anything like this? I think all of us have had a radio or two burn up, but ever anything like this? GERRRRR!

[resq302]

Holy crap .  Glad you werent hurt and the car is fixable.  I wonder why the fuseable link didnt pop.   At least you have an excuse to get nice new wire harness.

[BigBlockSam]

 

[Silver R/T]

thats sucks

[squeakfinder]

Does this car have an amp meter? I don't know what year the car is but you have full battery power at all times to the amp gauge on older mopars (up to 1978 on Dodge pickups I think). And, well, it can lead to some interesting results if something shorts against one of the posts under your dash, or the gauge itself goes bad. Hope you can track down the cause.

[Mean 318]

1970, the mean looking one! lol

[derailed]

These shutoffs arent a bad idea for those types of situations.

[70charginglizard]

Fried my engine harness last year. Probably not the same reason yours fried but here is the post I made last year detailing out why mine got fried.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,3292.0.html

Definately contact that Bill Evens guy (second reply on this post) to get your new engine wire harness. Best harness guy in the business!!!

PS- Don't risk your vehicle over a electical or carb fire. GET A FIRE EXTINGUISHER AND PUT IT IN YOUR CAR RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR SEAT.

[chargerboy69]

Does this car have an amp meter? I don't know what year the car is but you have full battery power at all times to the amp gauge on older mopars (up to 1978 on Dodge pickups I think). And, well, it can lead to some interesting results if something shorts against one of the posts under your dash, or the gauge itself goes bad. Hope you can track down the cause.

I have heard of that happining before. In fact, before I bought my Charger that happend to my car. When I put my car back together I bypassed the amp meter for that very reason. . .And just a tip to mean 318. Put a Halon fire extinguisher in your car.

[Brock Samson]

better then a fuel fire..
glad your ok... it sucks and an embarassment but it's fixable..

[Wakko]

Lucky stuff!!!  I keep a fire extinguisher in every car.

[Mean 318]

Well I stayed up till 4am trying to track down WTF happened. It looks like I got lucky under the hood. It only burned up one part of the harness. The dash is another story! I got some pics of what happened. The wires going from the alt. to the regulator to the coil, to the resistor, to the firewall are dead. Then I pulled the dash apart " I forgot how much fun that can be!!!!" and it looks like it ran up three wires into the column. Then there are three wires that are fudged into three more that run to a box, " For the flashers maybe?". At the point where the three wires are fudged is where the fire stopped. So my thoughts are the ignition switch. Anyone else still think the amp gauge. None of the wires to the gauges look burnt, and neither do the wires running to the aftermarket gauges.

[Mean 318]

.

[Ghoste]

It has almost become a mandatory first restoration step to replace the wire harnesses in these 40 year old antiques.
Glad no one was hurt and the car came through relatively unscathed.  It could have been much, much worse.

[Mean 318]

Thanks guys!
Upon further inspection it looks like there is one wire that runs into the aftermarket Amp. Gauge!

[Mean 318]

And just for the record, I DID NOT DO THIS FU#KED UP WIRING JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think a chevy guy did!

[Ghoste]

That's what I mean about 40 year old wiring.  Between the old wires and corrosion and multiple owners hack jobs over the years, a lot of the original wired cars are fires waiting to happen.

[69charger2002]

no chance you want to sell that 70 coronet huh? i am looking for one
trav

[hemi68charger]

Man, Glad to see you and the car or OK..............   Guess you'll be rewiring for sure now..............

Troy

[Charger_Fan]

No, horn relay.




As bad as yours was, at least your car didn't end up like this one.

[70charginglizard]

 

That SUCKS@!@!

I said it before and I'll say it again....always ALWAYS carry a fire extinguisher next to you in that glove compartment.

[DarkAngel0816]

Looks like the wiring in my Charger.  I did start it earlier this summer and one of the wires to the alternator sparked up and burnt through.  Replaced alot of the bad wiring under the hood and in the dash...but I am going to just go ahead and buy all new wire harness when I find the money to do so.  I also carry a fire ext. right on the seat next to me.

[Mean 318]

Well I think it is the ignition, I got lucky under the hood so I think that I can save all of the wires. I am going to look for a new wiring harness for under the dash, I will also price to what the difference is to just get a whole new kit front to back!

[Mean 318]

No, horn relay.

As bad as yours was, at least your car didn't end up like this one.

Thanks, what the hell happened to that car?!?

[Charger_Fan]

No, horn relay.

As bad as yours was, at least your car didn't end up like this one.

Thanks, what the hell happened to that car?!?

An electrical fire.

Here's the rest of the story; http://1970chargerregistry.com/70messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=3008&start=

[Mean 318]

WOW! If I wouldnt have pulled them cables I would have one crispy Coronet!!! I am just glad I didnt have the new motor in it when this happened! I am now looking to mount that beutiful lil red extinguisher under the dash! maybe slap a Mopar sticker to it! Mother Mopar was looking out for me that day!

[Mean 318]

no chance you want to sell that 70 coronet huh? i am looking for one
trav

If this wasnt my first car I would prbly think about it, but I saved up for her all year when I was fifteen. Just too many memories. lol

[ChargerSG]

After seeing those kind fire im glad im having a extinguisher in my Charger...

[79LilRed]

Does this car have an amp meter? I don't know what year the car is but you have full battery power at all times to the amp gauge on older mopars (up to 1978 on Dodge pickups I think). And, well, it can lead to some interesting results if something shorts against one of the posts under your dash, or the gauge itself goes bad. Hope you can track down the cause.

Actually I have a 79 Lil Red and I have an Amp Gauge. Additionally, I looked at an 80 Dodge Pickup that had one as well. So I think up to 81 they had one or at the trucks did.

[Hemidoug]

The amp gauge has always been a source of trouble in these cars. More then 1 car has met it's end because of it. The best thing to do is replace it with a voltage gauge. If I remember correct, there is someone who guts the amp gauge and rebuilds it with a voltag gauge. Looks stock and it doesn't carry as much "juice" into the dash area. I know I saw it in MCG or Mopar Muscle rags.

[squeakfinder]

Painless wiring has a couple of page's on improvements that can be done to help prevent getting a short caused by the amp gauge. I"m not sure if the 79 and 80 are wired the same.

[79LilRed]

Painless wiring has a couple of page's on improvements that can be done to help prevent getting a short caused by the amp gauge. I"m not sure if the 79 and 80 are wired the same.

rotsparts:  It is from understanding the later model trucks and later Bs...Dobas, 300s...etc used a slightly different amp gauge. They're suppose to be a little better than the earlier ones but, they still can cause trouble.

[tan top]

  damn sorry to see that , you was lucky  could of lost the coronet . hope you get it fixed soon ,

[GreenMachine]

   Something very similar happened to my '70 Charger a couple of years ago. I was driving it to Colorado on vacation which was a 12 hour drive. On the 11th hour, I noticed my tach fluctuating and all of the sudden, the inside of my car was full of smoke. I pulled over and yanked the battery cable off. By the way, there was all sorts of traffic and nobody stopped to see if everything was alright with my car engulfed in smoke. Luckily I was following some family members that noticed I wasn't behind them and came back after a little while. I rarely stop for someone on the side of the road unless they flag me down or they obviously need help, but if I saw a car engulfed in smoke, I would definately stop. Anyway, turns out the battery wire coming out of the Alt. got smashed between the head and the distributor and fried the alt. and the wiring through the bulkhead connector to the welded splice and back out to the starter relay. I always carry a wiring kit in my trunk, but didn't have 10 ga. wire, so I ran 2 lengths of 12 ga. and replaced the burnt wiring. The wiring in the conduit with it was a little melted but I guess I caught it in time and did not burn all the way through the insulation. We went back to the nearest town and bought an alternator and had the car back on the road in about an hour and a half.
   After that incident, I installed a fusible link in between the battery and the starter relay. And with the bulkhead connector burnt, the new wire goes straight through the firewall without a spade connector, which I've heard is also a potential fire waiting to happen.

[Shakey]

The amp gauge has always been a source of trouble in these cars. More then 1 car has met it's end because of it. The best thing to do is replace it with a voltage gauge. If I remember correct, there is someone who guts the amp gauge and rebuilds it with a voltag gauge. Looks stock and it doesn't carry as much "juice" into the dash area. I know I saw it in MCG or Mopar Muscle rags.

I think Red Line Gauge Works offers this option.  I also read it in one of those magazines.