Sounds like a classic case of poor or no grounding cables from the block to
the frame.
I believe the original gound wire was located at one of the starter studs
and run to the frame behind the left front wheel and it was not all that
heavy. I replaced it with a battery cable and put another from the block
to the frame on the right side of the engine. My choke cable too had
melted. The PO thought it was an electrical fire and, as a reuslt, sold
me the 68 2000 with 27K original miles on it for $900.
Ray
68 1600
68 2000
At 09:50 AM 05/03/2001 -0400, Alex Avery wrote:
>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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