holy ****

[jsbgump]

I thought the truck was gonna burn to the ground only to find this

[jsbgump]

here are a couple more from the pos cable hitting the header and me cleaning up the mess

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Electrical fires suck!!!!!!

[tnblazerk5]

holy **** aint the words for that

your lucky it didnt burn to the ground
glad it didnt hurt anything else

[shaneschevys]

That was a close call today!!

[jsbgump]

yup I want to thank shaneschevysand shaneschevychick for helping me out today

[shaneschevys]

Anytime

[ShanesChevys'Chick]

No problem gump but Next time try not to catch it on fire. They normally work better without the whole melted cables thing!

[jsbgump]

I know but **** happens

[chevy_fatman]

crap! close call!

[ChevLoRay]

I had the same experience with mine, back in '00. I started it one morning, only to have it die. The way it died, wasn't normal. Then, smoke started seeping from the front of the hood. I opened it up, only to find the wiring at the radiator support, glowing red. I saw that it was the wire from the alternator to the battery junction, but had nothing but my bare hands to work with. I pulled on the red hot wire, and broke it. Solved the short circuit. Burned my fingers. Saved the truck. Called my insurance agent. An adjuster came and we went to work. I got enough, after my $50 deductible, to pay for my new harnesses, the paint and money for my labor to fix it.

Yeah, watch that wire from the back of the alternator. If it comes in contact with your headers, it will not last long. The new harness has a bracket that secures the harness away from the headers.

[Striker169]

wow this makes me want to rush out and get a extinguisher (sp??) but thats a close call glad nothing major happened! I would hate to see another one of our trucks burn to the ground because of an electrical fire

[krue]

I had a similar problem happen to me. Went to start the truck and it just clicked. Raise the hood and saw a red glow by the starter. The cable insulation melted against the exhaust pipe. Had to tape a piece of water hose to around it to get home (worst part is I wound up laying in a fire ant bed to fix it ).

[Longhorn Man]

I think that would be holy smoke.

[Tx Firefighter]

I sent you a PM with my phone number. If you ever need help in town, give me a call. If I'm able, I'll help you out. Don't want to see a local brother stranded.

[67Fleet]

It's never a bad idea to have a fire extinguisher in the truck. I have one mounted in between my buckets, secured to the seat frame. There's nothing worse than seeing a vehicle burn because of an electrical fire. You got very lucky. As a kid I got to watch my family's boat burn to pieces while I clung to a life preserver from the middle of a lake. The starter somehow got locked in the open position and wouldn't shut off. My father wasn't able to pull the cables off the battery or dist in time before it caught fire and had to bail out, threw myself and my friend out and then jumped himself. I'll never forget that day.

[Longhorn Man]

I'll agree with the fire ext statement...
I had tossed one into my first Longhorn just as an afterthought when I took it on it's first road trip. I had only been driving it maybe 2 months when I was told I had to get to Ft Knox Kentucky by the next day. (I think I had about 30 hrs notice) I was stationed at Fort Hood Tx, right at 1000 miles away.
The truck would stall for no reason, and usually waould backfire at the same time, but not always. Sometimes it would just shut off instantaniously. I later found a timing chain so loose, that it wore a hole through the cover, (so THAT'S what that noise was!) and it had a huge chip missing from an exhaust valve.
So I get there with out too much incident, massively overheated when the rad puked it's guts out. Had a set of guages mounted, but hadn't had a chance to hook them up yet. As I waited for it too cool down I hooked up the temp guage, then I pulled the rad and repaired it with J B weld. Knowing it wasn't a strong repair, I grabbed a low pressure cap at the parts store (I think it was like 5 or 10 psi) and kept going. That was in Memphis...in one of the areas you DON'T want to get stranded in.
Got to Ft knox in 14 1/2 hrs. My speedo wasn't working, so i honestly have no clue how fast I was going, but I do know I hit 5000 RPM on one deserted section of highway in Ark. (4.10 gearing, about 30 or so inch tire, one to one final gear with no lock up....anyone wanna take a guess at my speed there?)
My first weekend there, I decided to come up to ohio and see my family. Hadn't seen anyone in 2 or so years, and I was only a couple hundred miles away.
Going up I-75 somewhere in BFE kentucky. (I don't knopw where, but I remember there was a dirt track for the circle track cars, and a church or something with 3 huge crosses in the yard towards the freeway.) I'm thinking I was 50 or so miles from Cincinatti, but I am not sure. Haulin ass down a hill when the engine just stalled for no reason. It was instantinous, like a piston ran into something. So I pump the throttle a bit, it's restarted in the past...nothing, pump it some more...nothing.
Hmmmmm, lets see what's at the bottom of this long down hill part of the road. I must have rolled a 1/2 mile before I saw the hood start to chainge colors. I was like WTF! The hood had the worn out springs, like most of us have or have seen, and the back of the hood stuck up a little. Right as the paint on the hood started blistering and turning black, a couple licks of flame shot out from under the hood.

You'd be amazed at how quickly you forget how to use a fire ext. Hell, I couldn't even remember where I put the stupid thing... it was just tossed in, not mounted. I found it under the seat (yeah, THAT'S a good place for it )
I run out and stick my hand in to hit the hood latch, and I remember something my grand father told me when we were in a similar situation years and years ago. "Never open the hood when there is a fire... onles you are ready to put the fire out."
It's amazing how quickly you forget how to use a fire ext. I stood there looking at that sucker for what felt like forever, I'm sure it was only 15 seconds...but that is still too dam long. popped the hood and had flames shot out, a huge mushroom cloud was made and I put out the fire.
Here I am, middle of no where, 1 in the morning on a friday night/sat morning...what ever you wanna call it, no cell phone, no tripple A, and a real bad feeling on how the **** am I going to get back to Ft Knox. The fire killed the air filter, the air cleaner's plastic spacer, turned the air cleaner from chrome to blue and black, broke the throttle return spring, melted the fuel line and all the vac lines, killed 3 plug wires....all this was only 2 or 3 weeks old too.
Never travel in junk onless you know how to rig stuff up. I made a fuel line and a vac line to the brake booster out of duct tape, I took a bungee cord, wrapped it around the bottom of the distributor a few times, then hooked it to the throttle...it worked as a throttle return spring for 3 months, I removed the burned plug wires and air cleaner assembly, and left.
Got to the next exit and used a bottle of black RTV to seal up the burned plug wires...ran them for 6 months after that untill I replaced them, found enough 3/8 line to make a fuel line and a vac line to the brake booster. Capped off the other vac ports, and shifted amnually for the next couple weeks untill i got a chance to fix it a little bit closer to properly.
I had nightmares the next night, of me standing there and watching my truck burn to the ground.
That reminds me, I need to dig my fire ext out of the tool box in the back of the truck and mount that sucker inside the cab.


One fire ext for A B and C fires is a pretty good idea. Don't get the little pint sized kiddie one, get one that is big enough to put the stupid fire out. It's been awhile since I bought one, but I think it was only like 25 bucks... that's cheap enough.

[matthufham]

wow, i wouldn't know what to do starting with the busted timing cover and cracked valve. at home, sure, but on a road trip i'd be screwed.

[KEH]

Just mounted mine the other day...

[phantom dually]

Originally Posted by KEH

Just mounted mine the other day...

Not to offend you but that things not worth anymore than the cheap plastic bracket it is mounted to. I work in the Fire @ Safety business and service portable units everyday. Kidde is by far the worst brand you can by. The one you have has a plastic head. They get brittle and snap off very easily. Find a good Amerex or Ansul unit that has a metal head. Also the gauge on those will stick and even if there is no pressure in the unit it will read charged.

[jsbgump]

Where is a good place to get one of the good ones like you have stated? How pricy are they?

Originally Posted by phantom dually

Not to offend you but that things not worth anymore than the cheap plastic bracket it is mounted to. I work in the Fire @ Safety business and service portable units everyday. Kidde is by far the worst brand you can by. The one you have has a plastic head. They get brittle and snap off very easily. Find a good Amerex or Ansul unit that has a metal head. Also the gauge on those will stick and even if there is no pressure in the unit it will read charged.

[tomatocity]

the positive side of this is you will have new wiring and it will be double tied away from your exhaust.

Happy & Safe New Year to ALL

[jsbgump]

Well all it took to fix it was 2 new bat cables. The battery was still good somehow. I will be installing a fire ext in the very near future.

[NO LONGER DISTURBED KONCEPTZ]

Damn boy what we till you about keeping those wires from metal. J/K Glad to see that you got it taken care of and are starting to work on the truck again.

[jsbgump]

What did we tell you about letting yours sit and rust away. All I have to do is open the door of mine and thats more than you have done in 2 years

Originally Posted by DISTURBED KONCEPTZ

Damn boy what we till you about keeping those wires from metal. J/K Glad to see that you got it taken care of and are starting to work on the truck again.