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Whoa...not good at all.

Definite whoa

WAY...good thing you got out of that smoke...deadly!!!! Really sorry to see this happen!!

WOW that is not cool at all
you are lucky you still have a car
that could have ended a lot worst than it did
it can take only a minute or two for a car fire to be totally out of control

Some where about 197? my wire (Track Manager) was driving my 96' Chevelle. I was behind her. Max smoke out of the drivers window. I fuse link failed.
After I got the car home I found the entire wiring harness melted.
Six weeks later and 100 miles of wire I threw in the towel. The garage bill looked like the national debt.
Good luck and just hang in there.

You are all absolutely right. I fought as long as I thought safe, then sent my wife to make the call to the flame boys. They were great, as always. I keep a spray bottle of water in my shop as well as fire extinguishers, so I wasn't taking any chances beyond the excitement for my funky pump heart. I got a snootfull of those burning foam fumes twice, the second one nearly knocked me out. I'm going to be soldering fresh wires in place for days. There are 22 of them, about a foot long. Tomorrow I'll make an inventory of wire gauge sizes and insulation colors, and checking my heat shrink tubing stocks. At least if there are brake lights, reverse lights, taillights, side marker lights, courtesy lights on the doors, nameplate lights on the side of the roof pillars, trunk lights, trunk lid closers, trunk lid release, level ride sensors, license plate lights or stupid unnecessary third eye brake light malfunctions in the future... I know where to look for it. Oh yeah, and the rear speakers for the radio, too. Woof. Anybody wanna spend a week of vacation on this? There's no pay, but I'm a great cook!

Sounds inviting Rob, maybe if I were retired but I fear I would owe you in the end, I've seen some of your cooking come to think of it I might never leave if I came down
:whistle: :whistle: :whistle:

The company that I worked for was a major producer of chemicals for all sorts of rigid and flexible foam, including the stuff that goes into car seats. I worked on a project to make a new flame retardant for flexible foam and we used to test that by setting easy chairs on fire. The chairs would be in a special room and there was an igniter that simulated leaving a lit cigarette on the cushion. The tests were videotaped and the results were dramatic, especially if the foam had no retardant. The cushion would smolder for a while, then the fire would really get going with lots of toxic black smoke. If you were in a the room when the chair went up you would be overcome even if the smoke was not toxic. It is a good thing that you got out of there and the fire department got there on time.

Good luck.

It could be worse?

Good grief! I'm a lucky duck!

That's what us retired AT&T techs used to sort out in manholes & on poles.
i.e (Find pair number 256 in cable 453) :mad:

Does anybody know a good cheap source for small quantities of wire? The least I can find online is 20 feet, which isn't bad, but in the old days when an electrical supply house sold by the foot in every color on earth, this would not be so expensive. There are lots of sources with 10 colors, but I need 19, and some of them are in 3 sizes. I don't want to, but I could make labels for the colors I don't have and stick the labels to the wrong color wires.

You might try looking at your local wrecking yard or one that let's you pull your own parts. That way you could remove the harness completely or just the part you need, but that way you'd have all the correct colors and gauges.

I once had a dash fire on a 1971 Buick GS350 I was driving and it went from nothing to I gotta get outa here in just a few minutes. As luck would have it I was able to pull into a fire station and they turned the hose they were washing the truck with on it. It made a bigger mess but saved the car from burning completely up.

Regards
Rico