My brother in law had a similar problem with his Datsun 1200 (the famous
orange two doors). It turned out that his grounding straps had not been
connected between the motor and the chassis. The car was trying to push all
that current through the choke cable. It's too much current to put through
a small cable. Check all the grounding straps.
Edgar
www.spl212.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex Avery" <aavery@rica.net>
To: "Roadster list" <datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 6:50 AM
Subject: Weird electrical short burned throttle cable
> 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
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