Was working my son's 63 dart, and decided to replace one of the bulbs in the dash panel so he could see the instruments better, pulled the old one out and got a replacement bulb, then decided to start the car up and make sure the bulb came on, bad decision. I had my hand up under the dash and was pulling my hand out when I heard a "Snap", then saw smoke pouring out from under the hood, then the car died, jumped out to pull the battery cable off the battery as the interior of the car filled with smoke from under the dash. Got the cable pulled and saw the carnage, the main wires to the starter, and starter relay cooked! Then the main was cooked all the way to the dash panel connection. In some ways I was fortunate it didn't burn through any other wires in the harness. Finally found the problem that caused it. The PO had left a wire from the old stereo system that he just disconnected and left there hanging. I must run it to short. It only took 4 hours, but I did get the old baby running again!! Lucky it didn't catch the whole wiring harness on fire!! I was suprised that the wires on a 44 year old car were still in good shape.

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1963 4dr Dart 270 225 six w/3speed column shift

Yikes, no fun. Reminds me of a similar experience I had replacing the horn on then-my father's, now-my 1962 Lancer. The early cars had no main circuit protection, so relatively small short circuits can quickly turn into relatively large repair projects (or worse). You may want to look at adding or improving circuit protection to the car; see this post and the links therein.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Did it look something like this?



That one cost me time and money I really could have used elsewhere.

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"When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it." - Pointy-haired Boss

1964 Valiant V200, 225/Pushbutton 904
BBD, CAI, HEI, LBP, AC, AM/FM/USB, EIEIO