Warning! Fire Hazard

[Grizzly]

Had an experience last night with my 67. The wire that bypasses the resistor in the ignition system decided to short out. Lots of smoke. Burned all the insulation off between the coil and the wiring harness. Scared the hell out of me.

Later at a post mortum I noticed a black mark on the top ignition shielding. It had rubbed through the wire and shorted it out. Whoever put the new wiring harness in didn't dress it out in such a way the the cover wouldn't rub it. That line is not fused I guess because it is only used to start.

Take a minute to check yours out, It will save you some grief.

 

[IH2LOSE]

Thanks for sharing

I am confused when you say the "by-pass wire" there should be no by-pass.
You should have a wire on the top of the resistor coming from the ignition switch and a wire that comes off the bottom of the resistor that connects to the coil, then from the coil a wire in to the distributor connecting to the points.

Thanks again for sharing

Do you normally have a fire exstingusher in the car? I am scaired of fire,I have fire exstingusher thru out my home.besides the normal spots you would have one I Pretty much have one in every closet in the house. and 2 in each garage bay. I have 2 in each collector car but none in the dailey drivers.I just brought my Cadillac out of winter storage and was cleaning the winter cob webs and found both of my fire exstingushers needing a re-charge.(they have been in the car since I finished it in 1994 or 1995 So I guess they only have a life span of 10 years or so ) Any way I told to replace it with a "Halon/halide?" that leave no powder.

So Now I am on the search for these style units.

 

[Grizzly]

Warning! Fire Hazard

There is one more wire. One that connects to the starter relay the provides a full 12 volts to the points for starting purposes. It gives a better spark when starting. The resistor is to lower the voltage to prolong the life of the points.

After I found out that the majority old car fires are started by electrical problems a fire extingusher is a permanent part of my 67. I picked up the halon extingusher at Carlisle. A little pricey but when you see it demonstrated you will be sold.

 

[JohnZ]

Yup, that's the 18-ga. pink wire from the "R" terminal on the starter solenoid that ends up at the coil (+) terminal, crimped together there with the 12-ga. pink wire from the resistor. You have to be very careful how these two wires are dressed behind the sharp bottom edge of the top ignition shield, or they can rub and dead-short to the shield - have seen this happen a number of times over the years - lots of acrid smoke and melted insulation. I put a piece of that black split convoluted plastic wire conduit over those two wires on mine in that area to protect them (can't be seen with the shield in place).