Prev owners make sick

[roscoFJ73]

Last weekend I took my cruiser out into the big sand dunes at Lancelin ,80 miles north of Perth.
I had a great day and the cruiser with its new 1HZ performed really well.

Later that night when I was home I was putting the cruiser away for the night I smelt burning plastic ,int lights went dim and began to notice clouds of smoke coming from under the dash. You know how much fun that is.
I had a fire extinguisher but I went for the battery 1st which stopped the smoke.

I havent had time to look at it until this weekend. Puling the stereo and dash fascia out didnt reveal anything and there was nothing burnt out in the engine bay.

I was reluctant to reconnect the battery and decided to get Dave the local mobile auto electrician in.
He got me to connect the battery temporarily while he fiddled with the controls and eventually started the engine.
Everything seemed ok and working as it should and no smoke.

We sat there for about 5 mins mystified as to what had caused it.
Then our noses caught the 1st wisps of of burning plastic again so we disconnected the battery and saw smoke coming from the drivers foot well.

We pulled the fuse box out and found a melted wire running under the carpet.
The carpet had begun to burn as well.
We followed the melted yellow wire underneath the carpet down the rear where it ran into the trailer plug.
Dave reckons that a PO:hillbilly has probably put the wiring in to run a caravan fridge while its being towed.
No fuse no nothing,just straight into the power at the back of the fuse box. The yellow wire is too small to blow the fusible link so it would just smoulder and burn until something was done.
It seems the wire had been crushed and had bare wiring touching the body intermittently.

Dave says Im lucky on 2 counts,1 That the cruiser didnt go up in flames in the driveway while I was asleep as it was live 24/7 and 2 ,that I dont have an expensive repair bill like is common in under the dash fires

Dave also got my spotlights working correctly and diagnosed a faulty oil pressure gauge as the reason for the gauge not working.
I was glad to hand over $80

 

[beanz2]

Yikes!

My PO also did some booty mods to my AC switch. The potentiometer had gone bad and the leads were soldered so whenever the fan was on, the AC kicks on at full power. No wonder the 2H felt gutless when I had it.

Dave

 

[brownbear]

Take the time to inspect the other wires around the truck since the PO has been shown to be a POS.....

you might find other atrocities...

You were lucky, that is the start of a fire.....can you imagine losing that truck after all the work you put in doing the conversion..shocking!

 

[roscoFJ73]

Take the time to inspect the other wires around the truck since the PO has been shown to be a POS.....

you might find other atrocities...

You were lucky, that is the start of a fire.....can you imagine losing that truck after all the work you put in doing the conversion..shocking!

Funny you should mention that BB. I had an electrician remove an old alarm system before the engine swap and he found some obsolete and potentially catastrophic wiring and removed it from under the dash.
I thought it was all gone at that point,hopefully it now is

Im going to put the dash back together today.

 

[DrrrtyGRRRL]

geez, threads like this make me nervous...

 

[roscoFJ73]

geez, threads like this make me nervous...

It helps if you stay calm and act quickly,make sure you have some sort of quick release battery lead clamps so the battery can be disconnected quickly.
Some battery switches would be ideal.

Not forgetting that the hood release mechanism must work as well



Dont leave home without a fire extinguisher!!
Fire extinguishers are so cheap now its lunacy not to have one(or two)

If your in the market for a new cruiser have a look under the carpet,inspect the fuse box and note the quality of workmanship that has gone into fitting any extra lights or accessories.

The electrician who looked at my cruiser says he has also seen a lot of cruisers that have gone up in flames through dust/fluff on the blower resistor.
He said he was expecting that to be the problem on mine

 

[troopie]

I have to agree with Rosco, get quick release battery clamps or do what i did, a Hella main switch on the dash.

Two years ago my troopie almost burned down because of bad wiring. Lucky for me the wire was only hot in the on position of the ignition switch and i reacted fast enough to put the fire out in time.
The switch was the first thing i installed.

HTH

Mark

 

[roscoFJ73]

The Hella main switch idea is a good one.
I believe some of the cruisers working underground have these but mainly to shut them down when blasting is about to commence.

I hate my cruiser to end up like this little 4x4 300 miles from the nearest town.
It actually caught on fire 3 times that day,the 3rd being the last