Ok, this may be the weirdest electrical problem I've run across.
I'm a Z guy, but my pops has a '69 2000. Yesterday evening, he was out
"enjoying the ride" when his throttle pedal started getting "soft" and the
engine died down to idle.
He pulled over onto the grass by the side of the road and when he got out,
he noticed smoke emerging from around the sides of the hood. He popped the
hood and saw what he thought were "wires" on fire! He put them out with
his hankerchief and walked home and gave me a call. I drove over to tow
the little bulldog (that's what I call it) home.
When I looked at the "wires" he told me about, I realized they weren't
wires at all--they were his throttle cable and one of the choke cables.
The main throttle cable's plastic sheathing melted right off along the
whole length of the metal cable (from the linkage on the intake back to the
pivot arm on the firewall). I looks like the throttle cable is a
replacement, as there is no metal sheathing on this cable as there is on
the choke cables.
On the choke cable, it's metal with a plastic cover over that. The plastic
has boiled along the whole length of cable and this cable is now bonded to
the other non-melted choke cable.
So, what is happening? My hunch is that there is a huge short running
through these cables and this is causing them to heat up, etc. But where
is the juice coming from? Has this happened to anyone else?
Help, I'm terrible with electrical problems and my father relies on me to
keep his little beast going.
Alex Avery
Churchville, VA
|