wrong wire and the magic smoke escaped

mustang68

I'm depressed so this deserves a thread of its own!

I was working on the car, too late, too dark and I thought I pulled a wire out, so I connected it back to where I thought it went. Don't know what it was, but it was live, going though my main loom. I re connected the battery only to find that I grounded it, thats when the smoke started. no fire, but not nice, think I've burnt into the loom

Any ideas how to start the deal with this, don't thint I'll make terenure for sunday

Lyre61

A lot depends on where the smoke was and how long you had it connected for, If you know where the smoke was, try cutting into the loom wrap and see how much damage was done, anywhere you have managed to expose the core of any wire you will have to insulate them again with tape or the shrink tubes from the likes of Maplins or radionics. If you have access to the ends of the wires in the loom you could try a multimeter to see if you have created a short circut. You should also check out your fuse box.

MercMad

The main thing is not to panic !

Its only wiring, take it step by step. Obviously disconnect that wire and check its insulation. Did any fuses pop ?

If you can identify a burned wire it may be better to cut out the burnt part rather thahn re-insulate it. Genertally it will burn in the area of the short, i.e only where you connected that wire incorrectly. I would strip off that area untill you can see all the damage, cut out and repair as neccesary !

Dades

I did the same thing in the dark a few months ago...

Connected the battery up wrong (long day) - started crackling and smoking.
Nothing worked that night, and my Fiat web buddies were telling me I'd probably need a new alternator amongst other things.... But after a sleepless night was magically restored in the morning.

So moral of the story is it's probably nothing too bad. Deffo start with the fuses and the visible stuff before you go digging.

Good luck!

mustang68

Don't panic mister mannering!

ok, I'll have a look later when I get out of work. Fuses seemed fine, cable isn't needed (I think that it was for another type of fan motor). The insulation is burnt off compleatly on the exsposed cable, hopefully not too bad in the loom. I shall keep you posted.

Thanks for your help guys, great to have a resource like this to come to.

mustang68

Yea!!

I got it working and got to go to the show, spent Friday night, all day sat and was up on sunday at 7 to get it done.

The wire burnt through the whole loom, end to end, that was destroyed, but theh damage seemed to be limited to its insulation being melted onto other wires. The loom wouldn't come out, so I hed to do it in the car. Took the burnt bits out, fixed the bad bits in the loom and taped it all back up. car started up fine, all electrics working

Never found what the burnt wire was for as everthing works fine, probably some accessory wire for another model or something.