logans73

First some history on my starting woes of my 1973 coupe (350/auto).

Occasionally when starting, smoke rises from under the dash. I think this is from an old bubba wiring job (there are big yellow wire nuts under there). My wife's aunt wanted something to work on, and started replacing the starter. I am now putting it back together.

There seems to be an extra ~14 gauge black wire attached with the positive cable from the battery and the horn relay. I could not locate this in my manuals and wiring diagrams. It seems to turn red further up, but goes into a taped bundle. Has anyone run into this? I assume it is a positive battery tap, maybe the stereo?

Also, has anyone experienced the smoking from under the dash? A while back it failed to start. After trying all the usual checks, I started digging under the dash. After some tugging on the wires it started again. Any suggestions? I choke on the prices of wiring harnesses, but wonder if it will be too much trouble trying to repair the poor workmanship done over the years.

Thanks.

Jon

A C

You can repair the harness, but after 30 years, maybe it just time for a new harness. Copper work hardens over time (gets harder each time it moves), contacts corrode, insulation rubs away. I did the repair thing, but two years later I decided it was best to just replace the whole harness. Smoke from the dash is not good! Fiberglass, vinyl, and plastic do not handle fire very well. :smash:

flynhi

I had almost hte same situation with my 71 and I nursed it along for more than 10 years.
Recently I decided to rewire the entire car. Two observations:
1. Buy the best harness available. I bought a decent harness from a decent guy but it had several errors which took a lot of time to discover and fix.
2. Expect that the "de-Bubba" process will mean replacing some components. For example, my old wiring harness had been modified to accomodate a non-Vette wiper motor, alternator and radio. New, correct Vette parts will berequired to work with the new harness.

If you plan to keep the car - by all means do this!

bigvette1

There seems to be an extra ~14 gauge black wire attached with the positive cable from the battery and the horn relay. I could not locate this in my manuals and wiring diagrams. It seems to turn red further up, but goes into a taped bundle. Has anyone run into this? I assume it is a positive battery tap, maybe the stereo

most likely as it is not a syock wire. Can you see where it heads from the starter? Does your car have an ignition box?

Fevre

I picture Aunt Bea from the Andy Griffin show up under there wrenching out the starter. :lol:

68shark

Whatever it is....I would treat this with urgency. Where there is smoke there will soon be fire..... :eek: