Went to start the car at 3am this morning (3rd shift work) and nothing.....THEN all of a sudden i smelled smoke, and sure enough it bellowed out under my car with fury. I managed to scramble for the 13mm wrench and unhooked the car's power from the battery which stopped the smoke.

I need a clutch cable in like the worst way.

If anybody can help me out, let me know or something via e-mail at britt (at) reactornet (dot) net. Or via cellphone 502 741 0183.

Thank you all!

b

You forgot to hook up the ground strap on the transaxle. You turned your clutch cable into a ground strap & it melted.

Sorry to hear you are having car problems. I can't help with the clutch cable but do you have the transmission ground wire connected and with a good connection?

Well the ground cable is actually hooked up, but I should have replaced it before now. Things aren't what they appear I suppose. The ground cable looked good.

I figured thats what it did, but it pissed me off anyway.

b

Electrical cables can often LOOK good, but not be. Get out your meter and test the transaxle to ground strap resistance, and the ground strap to body resistance. I once had a bit of grit between the trunk floor and the ground strap that didn't allow me to tighten it down fully, and just that much made it nearly a complete insulator.

Check your throttle cable, too. Both the throttle and clutch cables often become the ground if the ground strap isn't in place.

sorry to hear that. but thats funny! ive never heard of this happening!

bummer. but laugh about it. it makes things less painful LOL

AA

It happens quite often actually. Does not usually result in a fire though. I'd check for a short circuit also.

I think the fire was actually smouldering of the cable.

Lost the E-brake cable too, driver side. I guess after the clutch cable was toast, the E-brake cable laying kinda NEAR the engine mount bar and decided that it was the next best path for energy.

The old 1.7 had an extra new ground wire in the actual engine bay going to the battery.

Wish I would have done the same to this one too....

I needed this to happen like I need pirahnas biting my feet and arms off.

b

if someone has a clutch cable, they will get a benjamin from me if they overnight it to me.

b

Just call Rich at HPH in the morning and ask for a Terrycable and he will ship it out to you immediately.

KT

huh?

Ive got one...I'll see if I can get it out tomorrow...

you definitely seem to have had your share of engine problems britt, I foresee a long stretch of reliability in your not to distant future.

Brett, sorry man. Got no clutch cable man.

What a coincidence. I was just talking about this possibility with Jim Kelly and Dr. Evil yesterday. Evil got this real serious look on his face and said, " leave off the tranny ground strap and eventually you can watch your clutch cable melt!"

Seems like you would have to have everything exactly wrong for this to happen!

'Cause if the many other cables we have are conducting; the accelerator cable, clutch cable, hand brake cables, and heater valve cables you'd think they could handle a fair amount of the starter current. At least enough current capacity to avert the heat required to start a fire. \

Either way think I think I'm running a secondary ground strap very soon!

Good Luck!

I still believe!!!

There IS hope!

I went to a VW show yesterday and talked to alot of people. Some even talked to me about my car. Only Porsche at a VW show though.

b

I really meant Britt..... not Brett... Sorry