IceShark

I knew this smell must be rear cam tower plate leaking oil. For a month & I was going to deal with this.

As I was pulling the battery cables for the battery project, I grabbed ahold on the rear lift ring and it moved! <img src="graemlins/jumper.gif" border="0" alt="[jumper]" />

This ring has 3 bolts. Two were gone and the third was about half way backed out. No wonder I was leaking oil.

Varnish must have held this thing on, sort of.

Anyway, I am discovering all sorts of scarey things. This is a 951S that I have had since early 91. It hasn't broken 40k miles on the odo, and, yes, that still works. The positive has huge cracks in the insulation, similar to Perry951/Brian. The cracks are close to the motor and its heat, I suppose. It was a sitting time bomb until that shorted out! Yikes!

The cable looks good until you move it. Then cracks all around. And corrosion into it.

Guess I'm glad I got pushed into this project as things are pretty bad.

Tommorrow, I try and figure out how to get the alternator feed out from under the intake manifold without removing it.

Perry 951

Dan -

Pretty much every alt line I have seen has been in very good shape. It seems that there is enough air flow in there to keep it somewhat cool, and the shields help a lot.

Unless it was removed before, there should be a hold down on that line, and you'll have to pull the intake to get at it.

IceShark

Yeah, I saw that strap under the intake. I had little kids yanking at my legs to shoot a deer so thought that was time to quit.

I am an uncle, so went with them. I will try and figure out how to replace without removing the intake.

My positive insulation jacket failed once it got back behind the motor. Airflow may be a problem back there. In any event, the positive cracks, as you discovered. Who cares if you pinched the wire?

You black taped it up due to insulation cracks and your car started on fire. I know you think you may have also pinched in motor install. Why risk/do that when the result may be so bad?

I'm pretty sure this is a common problem.

I'm not trying to push this battery wiring, I'm just shocked every half hour when I discover some major problem with it.

marksportcts

Although my positive was fine, the cover started to break near the terminal. I pulled it all out and replaced it with 2 sections of 0/1 gauge, one from the alt to the starter and the second from the starter to the battery. The factory is the same using a 2gauge and also has some small seperate wire/lead from the alternator.

Perry 951

I do not disagree with you one bit. The insulation was cracked before I taped it up. (young rookie mistake, we all learned something from it) The tape should have been fine, it was 3 layers thick. That is why I think I pinched it. Even if the insulation was fine, if I pinched it enough to cut it, it could have happened anyway. and even if I did not pinch it, or taped it, it would be in the conditon that many are, and it would be a matter of time before it shorted. I think they call that a "Catch 22!".

The key here is to find something that will hold up to the heat, and have a jacket on it to hold up against any abrasion from vibration. (or dumbasses clamping it into the bellhousing)

This is an important part of the car that is not inspected by the vast majority of us. Like the fuel lines, one of us had to be the first to watch it burn. Once that happened, the rest of us sure took notice.

IceShark

You think the factory wire is some sort of blessing? <img src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" border="0" alt="[hiha]" />

In any event, they did do the primary half-assed right as far a gauge size. But poor stranding and insulation. And connections to terminals.

I've got them off and the heavy ones are a bit under 35mm square. That is pretty good, too bad they didn't carry it out in the whole system or insulation jacket.

Anyway, that is over AWG #2 (33.6mm) at 35mm square cross section, so I will go with #1 at 42.4mm square. I think this will cost some more money as we jump the gauge(s). What am I thinking, I know it will cost more. LOL!

Just my thoughts.

IceShark

Brian, I'm trying to keep costs down in this project.

Ground does.

Positive gets the fiberglass sleeve. I won't sell it without it. It costs me more than the wire.

So be it.

Perry 951

Wel.. the alternative is electrical shorts that could blow out the electronics in the car (cost more than the wire) or a $15,000 engine fire (again, more than the wire).

Let me know when you get them made up.

Thaddeus

Another thing to check...

Oh well. Thanks for the wisdom, guys, I for one intend to act on it. So at least your misfortune, Perry, will not have been in vain.

OZ951

Oh well. Thanks for the wisdom, guys, I for one intend to act on it. So at least your misfortune, Perry, will not have been in vain.

Well said Thaddeus, ..... and there is the beauty in these boards, we all learn a few things when one of us has an unfortunate incident with their 944.