Dummy of the Month, ruined my relay board! Options

[Ian Stott]

Should have talked to my mechanic, but noooo I figured I'll just unplug the things plugged into the relay board, clean everything all up and reinstall it, well lots of smoke, evacuate the house, move cars out of the driveway to get the teener outside so I don't lose the house as well! Could see flames and of course the wife is now hysterical saying helpful things at the top of her lungs like "do something" get the battery unhooked and blow out the flames which were melted burning pieces of the relay board. Car is okay, smoke has cleared, only the relay board is damaged and now I can't get the last plug unplugged as it seems to be melted into the board, help me please! Anyway my momma said there would be days like this. Thought I would share my experience with everyone, I think it takes me out of the loop of guys you ask for help! Maybe we should have a dummy of the month same as car of the month, not trying to get the misery loves company bandwagon afloat but please tell me I'm not the only one who has fuched up!

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

[hot_shoe914]

Should have talked to my mechanic, but noooo I figured I'll just unplug the things plugged into the relay board, clean everything all up and reinstall it, well lots of smoke, evacuate the house, move cars out of the driveway to get the teener outside so I don't lose the house as well! Could see flames and of course the wife is now hysterical saying helpful things at the top of her lungs like "do something" get the battery unhooked and blow out the flames which were melted burning pieces of the relay board. Car is okay, smoke has cleared, only the relay board is damaged and now I can't get the last plug unplugged as it seems to be melted into the board, help me please! Anyway my momma said there would be days like this. Thought I would share my experience with everyone, I think it takes me out of the loop of guys you ask for help! Maybe we should have a dummy of the month same as car of the month, not trying to get the misery loves company bandwagon afloat but please tell me I'm not the only one who has fuched up!

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

Apparently you didn't read where I finally found a good useable hand then fell with it and busted it beyond repair a few days ago.

[Tom]

Sorry to hear this. Hopefully the wiring harness is OK.
Whenever working on the electrical things on the car, always remove the battery cable on the negative side of the battery. When you are done working/fixing, hook it back up - paying attention to any arc when doing so. Don't tighten the bolt. If after starting and running the car all is well then tighten the bolt. This makes it easy to yank that cable back off to stop an electrical fire. If it arcs, it means you have a large load that you did not have before. Find out what the load is, then rehook it up.
So, do you know what you did to cause this? Wires plugged in off set or something on the board shorted?
Tom

[Ian Stott]

Sorry to hear this. Hopefully the wiring harness is OK.
Whenever working on the electrical things on the car, always remove the battery cable on the negative side of the battery. When you are done working/fixing, hook it back up - paying attention to any arc when doing so. Don't tighten the bolt. If after starting and running the car all is well then tighten the bolt. This makes it easy to yank that cable back off to stop an electrical fire. If it arcs, it means you have a large load that you did not have before. Find out what the load is, then rehook it up.
So, do you know what you did to cause this? Wires plugged in off set or something on the board shorted?
Tom

I unplugged everything with no issues until the plug closest to the firewall, I just moved it a little and it started smoking, and then I saw flames, I ran in the house and told everyone to get out, the teener is on fire then went back into the garage from outside and unhooked the neg. side of the battery and then blew out the flames which were coming from melted pieces of plastic which was from the underside of the relay board.

[Tom]

Well, that should not have caused a fire! However you never know what a previous owner may have done.
Sounds like the relay board was the weak point and that is good. Relay boards are a lot cheaper than a wiring harness. This is another reason to put fuses on those wires at the positive side of the battery. The 4 red ones , that two go to the dash and two go to the relay board 14 pin connector. Had yours been fused, the fuses would have saved the board. I guess I better get off my butt and do that on mine.
Tom

[shoguneagle]

First of all: Glad everything turned out o.k. and you did not burn the house down, etc.

Second of all: We all have done things like this or have like events happen to us.

Third of all: You can still seek advice/give advice; just look at your experience.\

Things like this happen. I almost burnt up a 1977 Lotus Exprit because I did not put a rubber gasket around the metal intake filter. You guessed it - the intake box cover got open and the gasket dropped down on to the hot lead to the starter. Smoke and flames while at an intersection. Thank God the light turned gree and I got to a business which just happen to have a fire extinguisher. I now carry fire extinguishers, yes more than one, in everyone of my cars.

You have just identified the reason for taking extra time and effort to make sure you are getting the electrical right. Who knows what caused the spark but it happened, guesss about the causes all you want, but get back into the car. If you need help there are many people who want to and will help you out on this board.

Steve Hurt

[Ductech]

"I guess I better get off my butt and do that on mine."
Tom

All of us should take heed to what Tom is saying. I have read more than a couple stories of cars catching on fire. Some of which sound as if they could have started by electrical misshap. I myself have thought of doing a fuse setup right after the battery on the four main positive's. I now will be doing this cause there is a lot more wiring in my car than your average 914, being a subaru abortion with a megasquirt piggyback.
Maybe someone should post up a nice walkthrough thread giving an example of a clean setup that could help prevent the fabled aircooled scorched car.

[Ian Stott]

That is good advice, thanks for that, isn't there a member who restores relay boards? Not that mine is restoreable, but it may be a source for a new board which I now need.

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

[r_towle]

Ian, what parts do you need at this point?
Relay board and a plug or two?
Rich

[Ian Stott]

Ian, what parts do you need at this point?
Relay board and a plug or two?
Rich

I may have a relay board from an old parts car, I have determined that all 914-4 relay boards are the same, the big issue at the moment is getting the plug closest to the firewall out of this damaged melted mess. My mechanic buddy has gone for a joy ride with his main squeeze in a new dune buggy, as soon as he checks in we will see about what damage I have done. I am leaving it alone til he checks it out which will make my wife happy as well. I must say the amount of smoke was incredible for the amount of burning that took place and it made me dizzy, I am airing out the garage right now.

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

[wingnut86]

...even removing the battery and placing it on a shelf to trickle charge can be fraught with danger.

A friend of a friend of mine ( (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) )...OK, maybe my twin brother Daryl, had left a stack of the small 2X4 and 2X6 metal blocking plates that you nail into place when running plumbing/electrical through a framing stud. These little plates are ubiquitous around my house because i have OCD/Freek-a-noia, whatever...

They keep additional mistakes from happening when you try to drill through or hammer nails into the wrong place in a wall, etc. YES - GUILTY there as well.

So "this other guy", MWAH, didn't see them fall off the higher perch and land perfectly across the red and black leads on the battery (IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif)

After the loud mortar shell went off, blew out the nice $59.00 charger, destroyed 3 shelves, 4 pieces of drywall, some nice trinkets my wife had stored there (hehehe) and generally caused my neighbors 2 years of their lives they will never get back...

...where was I?

Oh yeah, now I'm even more OCD and take cookies to the fire house when I drop my used oil off...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Live and learn...

[Ian Stott]

Got the relay board out, the multi pin connector closest to the firewall is now disconnected from the relay board (which is a mess) and some of the wires look fused/melted together(wish I could post pics, haven't been successful at that) My mechanic friend will be shaking his head at me or saying "good thing it happened here rather than when you were driving down the road with that leaky injector!" Is there a diagram of what each of those pins are connected to?

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

[Tom]

Yes, Haynes manual, page 161.
Sorry, but it sounds like you may have harness problems also. Be very careful before hooking the battery back up.
Those wires from the battery positive must have been really hot and melting other wires also.
Tom

[euro911]

Try Jeff Bowlsby's site:

http://bowlsby.net/914/WiringHarnesses/

[swl]

What Tom said!
There was a thread recently discussing the merits of a master fuse on the battery. Here is some good supporting evidence.

There are two unfused leads directly from the battery to the relay board - pins 14 and 12 (don't know why 2 of them - need to check the diagram) The relay board ground is pin 10 - right beside the unfused supply. Hopefully whatever shorted was on the board and not the harness. There is a cover on the plug - slide it off and see how bad the damage is. I shudder to think about the amount of work it would take to repair that plug if there is significant damage to the wires. Might not be too bad to repair the power supply and ground. Anything else though...

hear is a good diagram of the relay board with the leads identified.

[Tom]

Steve,
That is a wonderful diagram! Did you redraw it? I like the labeling of the wires to the 12 and 14 pin connectors especially. I have slowly been getting the drawing in my Hanyes labeled, but now it was easy.
One small thing, on the 14 pin pins #3 and #4 say brake lights but are back up lights. It is labeled right on the 12 pin.
Thanks for posting this great diagram,
Tom

[Ian Stott]

Thanks , that is going to be very helpful. Just so fellow members are in the know, Jeff Bowlsby has contacted me by e-mail and has been very supportive and helpful. Once my mechanic has determined how much needs to be replaced I will be getting everything I need from Jeff, only heard great things about him and his products and nice to experience it first hand. I just need to figure out how to get a nice fresh lobster to him as a thank you!

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

[swl]

Steve,
That is a wonderful diagram! Did you redraw it? I like the labeling of the wires to the 12 and 14 pin connectors especially. I have slowly been getting the drawing in my Hanyes labeled, but now it was easy.
One small thing, on the 14 pin pins #3 and #4 say brake lights but are back up lights. It is labeled right on the 12 pin.
Thanks for posting this great diagram,
Tom

I can't take credit for this one Tom. I picked iit up somewhere in my travels years ago and I can't remember where. I've really found it priceless and would love to credit the original author but I don't know where it came from.