Newb 72 Cutlass S

[BEERN420]

Hi my name is Kevin and I from a suburb of Chicago and I am restoring a 72 cutlass s and believe me it needs alot of restoring. Already replaced all brake lines, proportioning valve, front and rear pads, shoes, rotors and drums. Also swapped out rear control arms for tubular ones, put an edlebrook 7111 dual plane high rise intake and holley 650 cfm double pumper. Also did all the suspension bushings and alot of the wiring, had alot of problems with wiring in this car, had the engine harness melt at the junction box twice and cannot figure out why. The time between the two incidents is about 5 years with plenty of miles put on it between then and now and can not find a cause for the excess heat causing the engine wiring harness to melt right at its junction box, any suggestions for thing to check would be much appreciated. Besides that ill just keep shoveling money, parts, and time into her till......... well lets be honnest I dont think there really is an end lol.

[AtzMaBoy]

Welcome Kevin
Like I've said ...it's an addiction.

[AtzMaBoy]

I thought someone would have chimed in by now, Kevin.

Well, I can tell you that I have had no electrical meltdowns in any of my previous Cutlass’s. I did have a similar issue in an 85 Volvo 740... the chassis grounding strap had come loose/disconnected; seems that this caused any and all grounding wires within the harness to become hot causing the insulation to become brittle and fall off in many areas.

Ground Straps are the flat, braided, wire straps the usually run from the firewall to engine/frame. This might be something to check.

Anyone have any input for the man?

[Jamesbo]

Welcome aboard

Maybe one of the smarter mods needs to move this from the Newbie section to the Electical melt down section. Hang in there someone will help ya out.

YOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Rob where arst thou?

[BEERN420]

Originally Posted by AtzMaBoy

I thought someone would have chimed in by now, Kevin.

Well, I can tell you that I have had no electrical meltdowns in any of my previous Cutlass’s. I did have a similar issue in an 85 Volvo 740... the chassis grounding strap had come loose/disconnected; seems that this caused any and all grounding wires within the harness to become hot causing the insulation to become brittle and fall off in many areas.

Ground Straps are the flat, braided, wire straps the usually run from the firewall to engine/frame. This might be something to check.

Anyone have any input for the man?

Thanks I will check that the first chance I get. The whole electrical systems is a rats nest I think and am just going to go threw the whole car and replace one harness at a time too just to make me feel a little better. The last thing I want to see is all my hard work up in flames. Thanks again for the help.

Kevin

[Oldsguy]

Kevin, welcome to CO. Ken may be on to something discussing your grounds and it certainly can't hurt to have good grounds but I would look closer at the junction block/wiring itself. Usually electrical fires are caused by heat from excess current. I would recommend you look for what is called a soft short in one of the circuits. A car that old should not have many lives circuits with ignition off, maybe glove box light, cigar lighter, brake circuit (I think) and that's about it. So if you can remove fuses one at a time and monitor current drain on the primary wire from the battery (if you can use a volt/ohmmeter) that may help eliminate an offending circuit. There are lots of variables though. Was the replacement junction block new or used? Did you use part of the original wiring harness the second time? Was the car ever flooded to your knowledge? Wiring can be a tough problem to troubleshoot on the internet.

[BEERN420]

Originally Posted by Oldsguy

Kevin, welcome to CO. Ken may be on to something discussing your grounds and it certainly can't hurt to have good grounds but I would look closer at the junction block/wiring itself. Usually electrical fires are caused by heat from excess current. I would recommend you look for what is called a soft short in one of the circuits. A car that old should not have many lives circuits with ignition off, maybe glove box light, cigar lighter, brake circuit (I think) and that's about it. So if you can remove fuses one at a time and monitor current drain on the primary wire from the battery (if you can use a volt/ohmmeter) that may help eliminate an offending circuit. There are lots of variables though. Was the replacement junction block new or used? Did you use part of the original wiring harness the second time? Was the car ever flooded to your knowledge? Wiring can be a tough problem to troubleshoot on the internet.

The last time the melt down happened one of my friends owned the car at the time and he hacked everything back together with butt connectors =( that is another reason I am just going to gut the electrical system and run new harnesses. I just cant find and obvious cause for the melt down consindering even though he used butt connectors on it all of them where individually heat shrinked and it lasted around 5-7 years before it happened again, but the odd thing is that like the first time it happened I cant find the cause. Thanks again for all the helpful advice, never really got into the whole forum thing before but this place is great and everyone is so helpful. =)

[J-(Chicago)]

Welcome.
What Burb?I have a project at My dad's place in Woodridge.