Nearly a Disaster

[scannon]

As I was finishing up the interior insulation project, it seemed a good time to install the nut plate brackets that make the windscreen easily removable before I reinstalled the interior parts. The passenger side went well, no problems at all but when I started to remove the black trim piece on the driver side I managed to get one of the headlight wires wedged between it and the body cutting its insulation and creating a massive short.

 

By the time I ran around the car, grabbed a wrench and disconnected the battery the cockpit was full of smoke so I grabbed the fire extinguisher and headed back to the driver side. Fortunately, no flames but when the smoke had cleared I found lots of burned wire insulation, mainly the wires from the headlight switch to the ignition switch and from there on into the main loom headed to the battery. The insulation on other wires close to the burned ones is also damaged and will require replacement. When I started stripping out the damaged wiring loom I discovered that once the burned wire got past the tape wrapping, the heat dissipation was good enough to not damage the wire or its neighbors in the bundle. I will have 8 - 10 wires needing new sections spliced in, none of them over 2' in length.

 

I decided to take this opportunity to get rid of the Caterham steering column mounted ignition switch and lock and bought a simple ignition switch from NAPA that is a replacement for a Chevy truck. I will decide tomorrow just where on the dash panel to mount it. Once that is done it should be a simple task to replace the burned wires and get the car back on the road.

 

I never liked the location of the switch under the dash as you had to insert the key by feel. It was rather stealthy under there but the convenience of the dash mount more than makes up for it. I also plan to install a battery cutout under the bonnet or under the dash.

 

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1479908467_Burnt Wires.JPG

[xflow7]

Very fortunate that didn't turn into a bigger problem. Working on my Seven has made me pretty good about disconnecting the battery when doing anything of note under the bonnet, but I admit it hasn't occurred to me to do it when fussing around with those interior trim panels. Think I will next time.

[slngsht]

heh, I rewired my car with an EZWire harness last year... Somehow I managed to wire my cig lighter without a fuse.

 

I had a faulty accessory plugged in on the snow shoe blat. As I'm driving, I plug it in, and smoke comes pouring out the dash. Talk about freaking out. I pulled out faster than... well, it was fast :rofl:

[xflow7]

heh, I rewired my car with an EZWire harness last year... Somehow I managed to wire my cig lighter without a fuse.

 

I had a faulty accessory plugged in on the snow shoe blat. As I'm driving, I plug it in, and smoke comes pouring out the dash. Talk about freaking out. I pulled out faster than... well, it was fast :rofl:

 

I believe that's called a resistance heater.

[solder_guy]

I believe that's called a resistance heater.

 

 

A battery cutoff switch is required! I had a great experience installing mine in the dash .. I used two of those stepped drill bits.

 

I thought that I could cut off the battery after getting the car started and charging for a few minutes .. but without the battery in the circuit .. the voltage is higher and that throws off the electronic speedometer (registers a higher speed).

 

Rob

[scannon]

Lula (my '04 Caterham) is back on the road! The wiring has been fixed and the ignition switch moved from the steering column to the dash board. The old column lock and switch are history. I did a 12 mile test blat this evening and NO SMOKE. :hurray:

 

The new speedometer WORKS although I think the calibration is a little off or else I was driving about 5 mph faster than I thought when I was using the tach for a speedometer. After two Electronic Ratio Adjustors (ERAs) that wouldn't pass the signal on to the speedo, I borrowed a new front button adjustable speedometer from Alaskossie and it did the job. Thanks Tom, your new one is on the way.

 

One strange thing happened, the beep on the turn signals is much louder than before. I can now hear it while driving where before I could only hear it while idling at an intersection.