I'll still use them but then I don't buy the cheapest on the shelf and I don't tighten them like I'm trying to show how mucho I am by screwing them tight with two 12" shifters (adjustable wrench).
OT car but don't have a clue what caused it. 1 Halon extingus View attachment 4906453 ire wouldn't put it out
I have a couple of cars, 62 and 66 that I drive in good weather. I installed one of those battery disconnects with the plastic knob on the negative terminals of both cars. Unless I am driving them, the electrical system is dead. Found some real issues with the 62 shortly after I bought it. Two uninsulated spade terminals on the tail light wires and the wires to the turn signals were pinched between two pieces of sheet metal. You just don't know the history of these cares unless you bought them from a close friend. I also have factory fuel filtration on both cars, no aftermarket inline units.
I once washed my british 64 Ford with a pressure washer. Water was pressed into the rear lights which caused a short. I was lucky because I saw heavy smoke coming out of the engine compartment and the dashboard and pulled the battery before something ignited. 1. The seals of the rear lights were old and 2. the car still had the original wiring, which came without a fuse box.
I ran one on those ^^^ on my bike from San Francisco to just outside of Salt Lake City. Noticed that my crotch was stinging, and when I checked it had rattled loose. I replace it with an automotive inlne filter in Salt Lake City. They look cool and that is where it stops. The bulk of the fires I have ever had were electrical. I learned the hard way that one of these is a bad idea a long time ago. If your amp gauge is less than your charging output it will catch fire and burn everything in its path until the power is shut off.
1971 my 1st car at 16 was a 2 barrel 283/power glide more door 1964 Chevelle that I bought from my older sister for $400 that I soon changed to a stick. The clutch linkage was a big challenge for me then, changing to a floor shifted manual 3 speed transmission with the bell/clutch linkage from a 60 Chevy wagon that I bought for $50.00. Ended up with a huge hole in the firewall for the clutch linkage rod because my measuring skills sucked and didn't have the proper tools at that age, had also used older rubber fuel line hose from the 60 when putting the 4 barrel manifold and carburetor from it. Installed flex pipe dual exhaust with glass packs and life was good, a few months later sitting at a stop light noticed my foot was wet, sure enough I reached down and rubbed my tennis shoe and my hand smelled like gas . The old fuel line cracked at a bend near the carburetor and was squirting enough for the fan to push enough gas through the big clutch rod hole. Had enough hose line left to cut off at the crack and clamp, then drove on to my girlfriends house My Guardian Angel was pretty busy during those teenage years, I thank him for always being there.
Had an OT '79 Mustang with 2 bbl carb with accel pump diaphragm under the bowl overhang dry rot and rupture. Caught fire so I grabbed ABC extinguisher, pulled hood release and jumped out and opened hood as the paint on it bubbled up! Resultant burst of flame demonstrated why most fireman start their attack on an underhood fire with an axe through the hood But I did put out the fire and had to rewire some stuff and replace carb and a short piece of hose.
I have one of these in all my cars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBjXecsF860 https://elementfire.com/
Improperly routed exhaust system. On Highway 58, just west of Tehachapi, CA, there's a large pull off area on the grade for people to park in to cool off over heated engines, truck drivers use it to let their over heated brake cool and so on. My wife and I were hauling a load of produce from Salinas, CA back to Michigan and our dog needed to pee just about the time we came up on the pull off. I parked and got out of the truck and noticed small flames coming out from under a motorhome. The folks from the motorhome were on the other side so I yelled at them to get away from the motorhome as I ran to get the extinguisher out of the truck. Another trucker saw what I was doing and brought another extinguisher. By this time, I was laying on my back underneath the motorhome and I saw that the tailpipes were directed straight at the plywood under the aluminum skin instead of below. A large section of the plywood was on fire all around the LP gas lines. It took both extinguishers to put the fire out. Never got a thank you, KMA or go to Hell from the folks in the motorhome.
Two more experiences come to mind as I’m reading through others responses here. The first one was back when I was only about 10 years old I was over at a friends house. His dad was a mechanic at the local GM stealership, and he did a lot of side work at home. He had somebody’s Corvair there that wouldn’t start. I was standing around watching and learning with great interest. First was his fuel supply check. He pulled the fuel line off of a carb, and had his son turn the key to crank the motor. Sure enough gas spurted all over the place, there was fuel pressure. Next he grabbed a spare spark plug out of his toolbox, plugged it into one of the spark plug wires and has it laying on top of the engine. He’s going to have his kid crank it over to check for spark. I said “if that sparks, won’t it catch the gas on fire?” He looks at me momentarily as if what does this dumb kid know, and says to his son go ahead crank it over. Sure enough it had spark and WOOF! The whole top of the engine was engulfed in flames! He grabbed a CO2 fire extinguisher and put it out. He looks at me and said “I didn’t think that would happen” Another one wasn’t a fire, but I was scared to death that it would be a fire or explosion. We had an old power stroke diesel crew cab at work, and it didn’t want to start. I had cranked it for about 20 seconds three or four times and it didn’t start, but I tried again. On about the fifth attempt, when I released the key, the engine wouldn’t stop cranking. I turned the key on and off several times, but it kept going. I pulled the hood release, figuring I’d pull the battery cables off of the batteries. But the hood didn’t pop. I ran and grabbed a vice grip, and got a hold of the cable down under the dash by the lever and gave it a good yank and the hood popped. The engine was cranking away the whole time. First I looked for a starter solenoid to trying pull the wire off, but that didn’t stop it, it kept going. The solenoid contacts must’ve welded themselves together. I grabbed onto one of the battery cables to try and twist it off but it was too tight, I needed a wrench. By the time I got back with the wrench the cranking was becoming more slow and labored, and steam was coming out of the battery vents. I was afraid to take a battery cable off, a spark might’ve caused an explosion. So I just stood back at a distance and watched as the covers blew off of the batteries, steam was blasting out of each cell like the steam out of a giant teakettle. I got back further just waiting for the explosion and fire, but eventually the batteries had nothing left to give and everything went quiet. I stayed away from it for 15 or 20 minutes before I went over there and disconnected the batteries.
Started driving in 1959, farm implements (tractors, combines) several years before that. Three engine fires with automobiles; ALL from leaky Holley 4150's (the end bowl gaskets). Two were cars I purchased new (both within 9000 miles). The third was one I talked my Dad into having a new (not a rebuild, or a junkyard carb) 4150 installed. It started leaking within 3000 miles. Have never had a leaky haystack Holley and drove more than 100k miles with one I rebuilt as a teenager on a 1956 Ford. Have never had a problem with glass bowl fuel filters. Hundreds of thousands of miles on 1950's and 1960's vehicles. Thousands of hours with tractors. I have never used one of the new aftermarket versions pictured in this thread. Had one steel fuel line crack a flare from vibration right at the carburetor; but it was an OT 4 cylinder with cross-flow head, so no fire. Have never had an issue with either copper or aluminum fuel lines. Before I was bitten by the "buy-American" bug, I smoke-tested some wiring on English imports (never a fire). Quickly learned that the standard 2 circuit fuse box with fuses heavier than the wire they protected were to be replaced on each English import with a junkyard Chevrolet fuse box, and rewire the circuits. In short, only real problems since 1959 have been leaky 4150's. Jon.
I was out riding around with my Model A gang, probably 12 of us. One of the cars sneezed and caught fire. I was the ONLY one that had a fire extinguisher! Got it out quickly with only a little charring of engine paint and some hurt pride. And YES @Bandit Billy, I know what it costs to recharge one .
At least yall can get them recharged! Around here there aren't any places to do the job. I'm liking the looks of that thing on that Jay Leno video..
Our hot rod club had an insurance adjuster come to our monthly meeting to talk about something "important" we needed to know. He showed us one of these glass filters and said don't drive your car if it has one of these on it, replace it NOW! Went on to explain that a major number of fires on classic cars were caused by these cracking the glass due to heat and vibration, also stress fractures due to different expansion rates of the metal vs the glass portion. Might explain why they loosen up as well.
Most are electrical that I’ve known of. I disconnect the battery when I’m not driving ( positive cable) I have a friend who had a beautiful ‘55 Nomad BB car. Wiring for the electric door lock got pinched in the door jamb, total loss and would have burned his house down but he smelled the smoke. (Attached garage) Fortunately, Haggerty paid in full! The other thing is plastic fuel filters too close to block or exhaust. Or as mentioned those groovy glass filters. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I remember seeing an OT AMC Eagle sitting by the side of the road with the underside in flames. Didn't take long for the whole thing to be consumed. Apparently the car had a bad oil leak, which was ignited by the catalytic converter, and in turn started the undercoating aflame, and things quickly went downhill from there.
I know what you mean. Closest place to me is 40 miles away in Chattanooga and it's only $75 to recharge a 5# bottle.
In my opinion striking a hood with a pick-head axe to bend the hood and make room for a fire hose is one of the best parts of being a firefighter!
When I got my Galaxie I knew there were things that I wanted to change. Being short on time and money, I decided to drive it the way it was for a while. That choice almost cost me a car. It had been about two weeks since I had gone riding in it. I started it up and stepped in the back yard to do something. About three or four minutes later I went back to the driveway. As I walked past the car I smelled gas. I walked around the other side of it only to find a puddle of gas RUNNING out from under it. I quickly shut the car off and popped the hood. The previous owner had pieced the gas line using rubber and steel. Every crevice on the intake was puddled an inch deep. Gas had ran off of the back of the engine and onto the ground. I guess where I had not driven it in a week or so, the rubber hose dryed out and leaked. Needless to say it received a steel ONE piece line shortly thereafter. I have learned not to trust the previous work on a car. It is not all bad but dont be blinded by the good work. Look your car over. I just fixed a bird nest of bad wiring, and bare wiring that was done by the previous owner of my El Camino.
I had assumed bad wiring would be the main cause but I'm actually surprised to see cracked trans lines and ATF as a signifiant cause. Good food for thought
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