Register now to get rid of these ads!

Hot Rods The Story about the Smoke is True

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Bob K, Oct 16, 2008.

  1. Bob K
    Joined: Mar 3, 2001
    Posts: 5,772

    Bob K
    Member Emeritus
    from Antigo Wi.

    The story about the smoke is true !!!!!!!!!!!!!
    We all know the story that our cars run on Smoke. If you let out all of the smoke, the car will quit. Well I am here to tell you that is the Gospel truth.
    Last night I was driving my 62 Vette on my way to the GG’s event in Bowling Green KY. I had planned to spend the night with my son in Lake Zurich Il. And continue on to BG this morning. You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men.
    I was about a mile from Brian’s house on a 2 lane road when I started to smell a obnoxious odor and noticed smoke coming from under the hood and under the dash. I pulled off on the shoulder and got out of the car with my trusty fire extinguisher in hand, I opened the hood to be greeted by a huge cloud of noxious fumes but fortunately no flames. I noticed a guy running towards the car and saw that it was a local gendarme who had noticed the smoke and had his cruiser parked behind me with the lights flashing. We determined that there were no flames after a close inspection but that all of the insulation was melted off of the engine harness and the under dash harness.I can’t imagine why this could happen, the wiring is only 46 years old, you would think it would last longer than that wouldn’t you?
    The local fire department showed up with sirens blaring and lights flashing and used their heat detecting thingy to look for hot spots, upon finding none they departed wishing me good luck. Yeah I sure needed some of that about then. The officer was nice enough to call a rollback and my son showed up about the same time.
    Good luck mixed with the bad, First of all, there were no injuries. Second, the car was not burned to the ground. I am sure that most of you have seen what fire does to fibergl***. It ain’t a pretty sight. Third, the guy that does the work on my kid’s 68 firebird. Is only about a mile from where I am stranded and he is also a respected Corvette shop
    .(My son and I built that 68 Firebird while he was in high school, we got it done in 1986 and he has put 100k on it since then.)
    Brian calls Doug and he is nice enough to go down to the shop and wait for the roll back to bring the charcoaled plastic fantastic in. We put it in empty stall and did a quick inspection to determine the harness’s were toast.
    This morning after cancelling my BG hotel room for tonite some more good luck made itself known. The company that makes the replacement wiring harnesses’ for these old critters is only 25 miles down the road. I head down the road in my rent a wreck and return with 698.00 worth of goodies to get the old girl back on the road.
    The downside is that Doug has the kind of shop that does not allow or encourage customers to hang around and offer help and advice. When I handed him the parts he put them in the front seat and said. “ I’ll call Ya”. So here I sit wondering how it is progressing and it’s driving me nuts.
    The bottom line is that I will continue my ROAD TRIP, if the car isn’t done by tomorrow afternoon I will spend a nice weekend with my son and his lady. That would mean I miss GG’s BG but I will still continue.
    So, Earl Scheib, Kustm52, Keisler Engineering, Corky Coker, Doc, Austin Speed Shop, Ryan, Nick79, Dirty2,The Fidgiter and a whole bunch more folks. Don’t pay the ransom, I will escape and see you next week.
    The whole purpose of this Epic Journey is twofold.
    1. To deliver the 62 to Santo TX where it is going to be used to develop a Power Rack & Pinion conversion kit for the solid axle vettes. I will leave it there over the winter and pick it up in April and drive it to the LSRU on the 16th which BTW is my birthday. That will be a terrific B’day present.
    2. My bud and body man FNG duchan bought a 62 Buick special off of the cl***ifieds and Dirty2 now has it at his shop. He is replacing some hoses and lines and an idler arm to make it safe for me to drive back to Wisconsin on the 27th.
    This started out to be a short recap of my adventures so far but you know how long winded some of us old farts are.
    Thanks for listening.

    B:DB
     
  2. fuel pump
    Joined: Nov 4, 2001
    Posts: 3,620

    fuel pump
    Member Emeritus
    from Caro,MI

    Sorry to hear about your misfortune but happy to hear that it happened how and where that it did. good luck Bob.
     
  3. Wouldn't be a real road trip without adversity like that!
     
  4. rodknocker
    Joined: Jan 31, 2006
    Posts: 2,265

    rodknocker

    A couple of years ago I put a wiring harness in a 68, 427, 6pk Vette for letting the smoke out.The customer tried to do his own tune up and never fastened the grounding wires on the plug wires, the arced out on the coil wire.
     
  5. rbroadster
    Joined: Mar 23, 2005
    Posts: 396

    rbroadster
    Member

    BobK,

    Just pulled into the parking lot here in BG.

    First car I see is a '62 Vette!

    It's dark, so I couldn't see the color, but knew it wasn't yours.

    Hope you make it down.

    Doesn't feel like home without the gnome!!

    Stay safe, brutha!

    - RBR
     
  6. Anderson
    Joined: Jan 27, 2003
    Posts: 7,560

    Anderson
    Member

    Very glad to hear the car (well, and you!) is ok...I really want to see that thing! Good luck Bob...shouldn't take long to swap in a harness. Good luck on the rest of the trip!
     
  7. Pir8Darryl
    Joined: Jan 9, 2008
    Posts: 2,487

    Pir8Darryl
    Member

    Let the smoke out???

    I didn't know Lucas made the wiring harness on a plastic cl***ic :confused:
     
  8. Close call for the travelling gnome! glad things will be OK Bob. You are a mouse? Whodathunket?;)
     
  9. 53chevy
    Joined: Mar 5, 2001
    Posts: 1,570

    53chevy
    Member

    Wow! Glad your misfortune turned on the upside. I wish more folks had your disposition. Hope to bump into you, cause I'm buying! Have fun on the rest of your trip.

    Ken
     
  10. zman
    Joined: Apr 2, 2001
    Posts: 16,790

    zman
    Member
    from Garner, NC

    There is magic smoke in a lot of things. Computers, stereo equipment, cars, motorcycles, etc. Glad you caught it before something bad happened.
     
  11. Dirk35
    Joined: Mar 8, 2001
    Posts: 2,067

    Dirk35
    Member

    Scary! I can imagine the pucker factor you were feeling seeing all that smoke from under the car.

    Glad to hear it didnt become a crispy critter!

    I can relate a little bit. While pushing my truck into the garage one night when changing out the bed on the 35, I dropped my battery onto the driveshaft. It smoked the ground strap going from the frame to the starter totally into two peices! That much electrical smoke is not meant to rise from a vehicle!
     
  12. jerry
    Joined: Mar 2, 2001
    Posts: 3,469

    jerry
    Member

    Long winded don't describe it Bob!

    Very glad that the car came thru fairly un****hed. Best of luck on the rest of the weekend. See you at the LSRU!


    jerry
     
  13. 49ratfink
    Joined: Feb 8, 2004
    Posts: 25,239

    49ratfink
    Member
    from California

    smoke bad.

    no fire good.
     
  14. metalshapes
    Joined: Nov 18, 2002
    Posts: 11,130

    metalshapes
    Member

    The Brits know about this problem, and they sell Replacement Smoke.

    It even has a Lucas Parts Number... :D

    smoke2.jpg


    Glad your Car is going to be OK...

    That could have been a lot worse.
     
  15. JohnJoyo
    Joined: Feb 19, 2005
    Posts: 1,381

    JohnJoyo
    Alliance Vendor
    from Austin, TX

    Hopefully the rest of your trip goes smoothly! Casa de Joyo awaits your arrival.
     
  16. belair
    Joined: Jul 10, 2006
    Posts: 9,036

    belair
    Member

    Glad you didn't burn it down.
     
  17. monsterflake
    Joined: May 13, 2003
    Posts: 3,763

    monsterflake
    Member

    glad to hear there wasn't much damage, that would be an expensive one to replace!
    it's been a heck of a year, hasn't it?
     
  18. Ol Blue
    Joined: Oct 31, 2005
    Posts: 395

    Ol Blue
    Member
    from In

    Bob
    It's my understanding that the cigarette lighter socket in early Corvettes is NOT fused and is frequently a cause of wire-meltdown on Vettes. You might want to check the replacement harness. If it's a factory reproduction, it might not have a fuseable link in the lighter either.
    Ol Blue
     
  19. Da Tinman
    Joined: Dec 29, 2005
    Posts: 4,222

    Da Tinman
    Member


    On Pops Studebaker, the cigarette lighter will turn off the headlights!!
     
  20. rbroadster
    Joined: Mar 23, 2005
    Posts: 396

    rbroadster
    Member

    Bob,

    Denise and 'other' Bob and I were going to dinner here in BG.

    Fired up my wagon and, well...... FIRED up my wagon.

    Toasted the harness between the regulator and the starter solenoid on the old Ford.

    Hopefully I can junkyard engineer something and cripple her back home on Sunday.

    Guess that'll teach me to laugh at the gnome. :eek:

    - RBR
     
  21. If you'd just stay at home once in a while and not drive those cars all over hell and tarnation you wouldn't have these kind of problems. But then you'd have less stories to tell and we ALL know how you like to spin a yarn or two:)

    Glad the car (and you) are OK.

    Dennis
     
  22. Long winded fart...Bob you know that lighting your farts while driving is just downright dangerous. Didn't your dad warn you about playing with matches? Some just have to learn their lessons the hard way I guess. What will the adjuster say though? Oh wait, you're an insurance man aren't you? Likely story, I bet!
     
  23. Dirty2
    Joined: Jun 13, 2004
    Posts: 8,902

    Dirty2
    Member

    Put some pressure on me bro !
     
  24. DRD57
    Joined: Mar 5, 2001
    Posts: 4,349

    DRD57
    Member

    That is some funny stuff!
     
  25. Bob K
    Joined: Mar 3, 2001
    Posts: 5,772

    Bob K
    Member Emeritus
    from Antigo Wi.


    Thinking about this statment tells me that you may have isolated the problem. Normally in my puffing days that cigarette lighter would only be used for a couple of seconds at a time.

    On this trip however, I was using my GPS for 4 hours and also charging my phone at the same time for about 2 hours.

    Could it be that the excess usage overtaxed that wire and started the whole mess? Maybe.

    When it gets fixed I will definetly put an inline fuse in that circut. I wonder what amperage fuse to use, prolly a 10 amp.

    I will be going to the shop at 07:30 this morning to see how things are progressing.

    B:)B
     
  26. trailer-Ed
    Joined: May 15, 2002
    Posts: 1,981

    trailer-Ed
    Member
    from JC, MO

    Darn Bob, a quick trip to O'riely's , and us Missouri guys would have had you up a runnin already :). Hope it all works out for you, and I'll see you down the road somewhere, sometime. Rusty.
     
  27. general gow
    Joined: Feb 5, 2003
    Posts: 6,472

    general gow
    MODERATOR
    Staff Member

    ha ha bob, you are too funny. only you could take a crispy car and turn it into a good time....
     
  28. NoSurf
    Joined: Jul 26, 2002
    Posts: 4,879

    NoSurf
    Member

    Glad everything seems to be working out despite your setback Bob.

    Keep us posted my friend.
     
  29. Ebbsspeed
    Joined: Nov 11, 2005
    Posts: 6,492

    Ebbsspeed
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

     
  30. Bob K
    Joined: Mar 3, 2001
    Posts: 5,772

    Bob K
    Member Emeritus
    from Antigo Wi.

    Just talked to the shop, they say I should be rolling late this afternoon. If so I will leave for BG as soon as I can, I figure it's about 8 hours from here so I will be in late.

    Here are a couple of pics from before the repairs were started.

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    Crispy eh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    B:DB
     

Share This Page

Register now to get rid of these ads!

Archive

Copyright © 1995-2021 The Jalopy Journal: Steal our stuff, we'll kick your teeth in. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy.

Atomic Industry
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.