Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: aaaaaaagh!!!! (Read 1060 times) previous topic - next topic

aaaaaaagh!!!!

Well, got the bird all back together and back on the road last Wednesday.  She runs like a bat outta hell, had to work some bugs out and all was good until.........Friday.  Was taking her down to get some new tires and decided to stop by the car wash and clean her up.  While waiting to get in to wash her, smoke started pouring out from under the hood.  Pulled her off to the side, the engine quit running, I opened up the hood and what do I find????? Passenger side of the car on the fire wall next to the A/C compressor there's a box with some relays in it and wires connected to it.  Well, those wires were on fire.  Upon further inspection, the three relays that were in that box fried.  It turned out there was a short in the fan which heated up the fan relay which in turn cooked the other two relays and all wires connected to them.

What a pain in the butt that was.  Replaced the three relays with some heavy duty relays, rewired under the hood.  All seems good now (I hope) and hopefully that will be the last issue for awhile.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]1987 Turbo Coupe
LenTech Strip Terminator Valve Body AOD, 302 Stroker (cid 347) 10:1 Compresion
Ford Racing Cast 3.40 Crank Balanced, Pioneer Forged 5.4 Rods, Mahle Flat Top Pistons 4.40, Edelbrock Performer RPM Alluminum Heads
Ford Racing 220 Duration 500 Lift Cam, Edelbrock Performer Intake Manifold , Edelbrock 800 cfm Performer Carb
Flowtech Headers, KYB Adjustable Shocks, Dyna Max Exhaust
355 Posi Rearend

aaaaaaagh!!!!

Reply #1 –
Jesus man, that sucks major ass. Glad to hear you and the car are alright though

aaaaaaagh!!!!

Reply #2 –
Quote from: 84 Fila;166208
Jesus man, that sucks major ass. Glad to hear you and the car are alright though


Tell me about it.  So far to date, I have sunk some 8 grand into her and I still have a little bit more to do.  Never did I expect the wiring to fry like that.  At least it didn't catch the whole car on fire and all I had to don was change some relays and do a bit of rewiring, could have been worse.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]1987 Turbo Coupe
LenTech Strip Terminator Valve Body AOD, 302 Stroker (cid 347) 10:1 Compresion
Ford Racing Cast 3.40 Crank Balanced, Pioneer Forged 5.4 Rods, Mahle Flat Top Pistons 4.40, Edelbrock Performer RPM Alluminum Heads
Ford Racing 220 Duration 500 Lift Cam, Edelbrock Performer Intake Manifold , Edelbrock 800 cfm Performer Carb
Flowtech Headers, KYB Adjustable Shocks, Dyna Max Exhaust
355 Posi Rearend

aaaaaaagh!!!!

Reply #3 –
It's better than everything under the hood getting cooked.Glad to hear it wasn't worse.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..

aaaaaaagh!!!!

Reply #4 –
Its telling you it doesnt like the v8 in it.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
1974 maverick lsx powered turbo car SOLD
1973 maverick Tijuana Taxi Tribute
1957 chevy LSX Turbo project (race car)
Owner of Joe Dirt Fabrication

aaaaaaagh!!!!

Reply #5 –
durn straight :hick:
93 Festiva L, 193k miles, BP+T/G25MR swap, T3 50trim .48/.42, SRT FMIC, Capri electronics/Rocketchip, 2.5" exhaust
bests: ET 12.86, MPH 110.25, 1.92 short
02 Subaru Impreza WRX, 129k miles
97 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport, 236k miles

aaaaaaagh!!!!

Reply #6 –
Ummmm, use 10 or 8 gauge wire for the fan and fuse appropriately at the source of power (battery and/or fuse block depending on how its setup). That doesn't sound like a factory setup, so something wasn't done properly. So whats the story? Any idea WHY it shorted?
1988 Thunderbird Sport

aaaaaaagh!!!!

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Seek;166220
Ummmm, use 10 or 8 gauge wire for the fan and fuse appropriately at the source of power (battery and/or fuse block depending on how its setup). That doesn't sound like a factory setup, so something wasn't done properly. So whats the story? Any idea WHY it shorted?


I bought the car with the original engine pulled out along with the computer and a 302 dropped in it.  Working on the car is a nightmare, there is no color scheme for the wiring, under the dash is one color scheme, under the hood is another and back around the gas tank is another.  So from what I can tell, since the computer is gone, the relays were needed.  The relays that were in there were cheap, cheap, cheap relays.  With the engine rebuild I did to it along with adding an extra fan, 1000 watt amp, digital dash and some other things, I am drawing more and more power.  Looking closely at the fan, there was a short in the ground wire.  Power went back to the relay and cooked it and the others next to it.  Heavy gauge wire is being used along with some heavy duty relays.  Everything is back running now and there seems to be no issues, I can only hope it stays this way.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]1987 Turbo Coupe
LenTech Strip Terminator Valve Body AOD, 302 Stroker (cid 347) 10:1 Compresion
Ford Racing Cast 3.40 Crank Balanced, Pioneer Forged 5.4 Rods, Mahle Flat Top Pistons 4.40, Edelbrock Performer RPM Alluminum Heads
Ford Racing 220 Duration 500 Lift Cam, Edelbrock Performer Intake Manifold , Edelbrock 800 cfm Performer Carb
Flowtech Headers, KYB Adjustable Shocks, Dyna Max Exhaust
355 Posi Rearend

aaaaaaagh!!!!

Reply #8 –
Yes, lets hope so. I use Bosch 20A/30 relays and haven't had any problems like I used to have with radio shack 30A ones. I would never fuse higher than a relay's capacity and even then, 30 amps is quite a bit of power so there shouldn't be a problem if wired appropriately. Of course, thats not to say that a crimp connection might be a weak spot somewhere and heat up by itself, so permanent connections should be soldered or the crimp area soldered and have dielectric grease applied to the connector.

I'm guessing you get a bit of use out of a multimeter - the only sure way to know where wires lead to and to make sure they don't have continuity to ground somewhere. Just play it safe, fires are easy to start ;)
1988 Thunderbird Sport