Fireproofed the engine, And the dash starts smoking! Options

[oakdalecurtis]

I've owned my '76 teener for about twenty years. I recently installed BlazeCut in the engine compartment to hopefully stop any potential engine fire.

I took the car out for a short test ride soon after completing the BlazeCut install. As I was headed back toward home, suddenly thick black smoke started pouring out from under the dash in front of my left leg! I quickly pulled over and shut the car down before a fire started. After the smoke stopped and my heart slowed down, I lowered the relay panel and here's what I saw! After forty years, one of the of the relay bases somehow short circuited internally and melted the surrounding rubber.

I finally got the car home and repaired the melted relay base and all is good now. But I remember what I was thinking when I first saw all that black smoke coming from under the dash. "Great, I have a fire suppression system mounted right behind my back, and the car is going to burn up in front of me in the passenger compartment and there's nothing I can do about it!". I now carry a small fire extinguisher in my center console box, just in case!

[cary]

Which relay was it ?

[oakdalecurtis]

Which relay was it ?

Thanks for everyone's kind comments about my status! It was the relay on the far left side of the board, I think that's the horn relay. It seems that the short was internal to the rubber relay base itself. There's was no sign of any shorting to the board or anyplace other than inside the rubber base. That's what I repaired, and now the relay that was plugged in here and everything else on the car works fine after the fix.