My son's 1955 Champion with a 185 six developed a short circuit yesterday, luckily he managed to disconnect the battery before any fire could start. He's in the Army and based 1,000 miles south of me, so it looks like I'll have a plane trip in my near future. Because he's not that experienced with old cars and has no workshop facilities on base I'm trying to diagnose the problem so I take the right parts with me on the flight. Here is what happened;
He'd just gassed up and went to start the car, it started three times then died after a few seconds each time. One the fourth attempt he said smoke started coming from under the dash, he jumped out and opened the hood to disconnect the battery and noticed there was smoke under the hood too. The cable running from the solenoid to the starter has melted the insulation, and so too the power cable that goes from the ignition switch to an after market radio I fitted - this cable has a 15 amp in-line fuse. He's at work today (Monday here), and is getting me photos this afternoon. He said before any of this happened the car was running normally. I'm leaning towards the ignition switch. Any ideas would be helpful.
Cheers
Matt
He'd just gassed up and went to start the car, it started three times then died after a few seconds each time. One the fourth attempt he said smoke started coming from under the dash, he jumped out and opened the hood to disconnect the battery and noticed there was smoke under the hood too. The cable running from the solenoid to the starter has melted the insulation, and so too the power cable that goes from the ignition switch to an after market radio I fitted - this cable has a 15 amp in-line fuse. He's at work today (Monday here), and is getting me photos this afternoon. He said before any of this happened the car was running normally. I'm leaning towards the ignition switch. Any ideas would be helpful.
Cheers
Matt
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