So, I had a little fire in the Rivi the other day. The power wire fell off the back of the front cigarette lighter, and grounded out. Lots of smoke and panic. Luckily the ashtray cover wasn't attached. I disconnected the battery and grabbed the extinguisher all within what felt like 30 seconds!! Anyway, I started tracing down the culprit wire, and keep finding more bare wires and previous hack jobs under the dash. Needless to say, I don't feel safe leaving it the way it is. Now, I'm pretty handy with electrical, so I'm weighing my options. Either way, I know the harness needs to come out. Should I just replace the bare wires and hack jobs once the harness is out? Or just bite the bullet and buy a whole new harness?
Should be very similar Stu, but you would have to compare schematics between the 2 years to know 4 sure !! :TU:
I'm in the process of pulling things right now. Was trying to not pull the gauge cluster....but it's looking like I may have to. Cut my hand under the dash, though. Not stitches bad...but enough to quit for today. Got everything pulled all the way to the gas pedal. To be continued.....
Glad you got out without too much trouble. I was cleaning up 45 years of electrical mayhem and got back to this mess in the Skylark's fuse block. The culprit was, you guessed it, the cig lighter. I lucked out and found a good used interior harness here on the board. I got everything working and then unplugged the feed to the lighter. It's only there to fill a hole in the dash.
...and know you know why we insist that every car entered into a BPG event carry a fire extinguisher.
Yeah...I definitely won't go anywhere without at least one now!! I was talking to my dad last night, who worked on the line in Flint assembling Rivis. He told me he always thought it was odd that the lighter lines weren't fused. I said" Whaaaaaaaat??" Doing some digging, and it looks like he's right. Definitely no fuse. Bad idea.... Looks like I'll be adding a fuse to it. I would like to keep the functionality of the lighter outlets for charging phones etc. After lots of debating and research, I think I've decided to just repair the stock harness. It's mostly pulled right now. It's looking like pulling the rest of it out is gonna involve removing the gauge cluster. Not looking forward to that one either....
What would have prevented that from happening is to install fusible links at the distribution block as I wrote up in the Riview some years ago. It would protect the WHOLE electrical system from this happening. You need to protect the actual source not just fuse the wire. Tom T.
Definitely. With everything out, I plan on updating the fuse block, as well as making some minor changes for safety's sake.
Knock on wood, but I haven't had a fire anywhere on my car since around 2001, but in the last five or so years I've put a fire extinguisher on the rear floor board of any old car I drive out of town for the "just in case". Pretty much since I went EFI =P BUT I've never had a need to use one! :TU:
The fuse block, if in good shape, should not need any upgrading. Your just giving yourself MORE work than is nec. Just adding fusible links will help to protect even the fuse block because it protects the wiring TO the fuse box.
They definitely are fused, at least on the 1970 Buicks. I know because I was blowing that fuse repeatedly because of a bad lighter socket. The fuse is a 20 amp and it protects the Clock, lighter, courtesy, glove box, dome, and trunk lights. It is the first fuse listed in the chart on page 120-12 of my 70 Buick Chassis manual. It is fused on the 1970 Riviera as that chart also covers the Riviera.
That is true Larry of the later cars, not the 1st. gen Rivs. The other wiring that goes bad & is a cause of fires in 1st. gens are the wires on the back of the ignition switch. Next to the 10ga. red wire is also a 10 ga. black, ground, wire. Over time, vibration, age, etc. the plastic plug starts to melt because of high amperage being drawn from somewhere. This causes the wiring to overheat. When it becomes hot enough to start melting the plastic insulation the red & black wires bond/melt themselves together. At this point not even a fire extinguisher will put the fire out.
Can anyone tell me how to get the dash out? I've decided to just repair this harness, but need to separate it from the instrument harness. Dash removal seems to be the only logical way to access everything. Do I drop the column, or remove the pad?
Stu, at this point you will be doing yourself a BIG favor by getting a chassis manual. Most ALL & EVERYTHING is explained in pretty much full detail. Probably more detail than you can get from asking questions as sometimes small details are left out as they aren't remembered, unless you just went through the same recently.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when buying an old car is to not get the Chassis manual. It isn't like they are hard to get, just the opposite. And Cheap too. Have a look at this, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-19...anuals_Literature&hash=item2599650188&vxp=mtr To your door for less than 20.00! Best money you will ever spend.:TU:
So many options..... Should I get a Rivi specific one? Or is the general one okay? Also...what about shop/chassis vs body? I should probably pick up both, huh?
