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And The Darwin Award goes to......

Davin

Davin

Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Location
Buckley, WA
ME!!!!!:rant:



A couple days ago I got a Autometer boost/vacuum gauge and an air/fuel ratio guage. I decided it would be cool to hook them up, so I pulled out the little clock and the stock boost gauge and started testing wires with my meter. Somehow I blew a couple fuses, so I replaced them and then had no power to any of the dash lights, but all the fuses were good.

I was confused about that so I thought I would see what happened if I cleaned up the fuse box (the retarded ones that came in the 240's). But being the IDIOT that I am, I didnt even think to unhook the battery before using a wire brush on the terminals.:grrr:

I didnt realize what I had done until I saw some sparks and heard my car scream for its life. Now the car wont start, the starter engages and spins the motor fine but it just wont catch. The tachometer doesn't budge when cranking:-(. I don't have any lights or sounds of any sort when I turn on the ignition, and I'm sure the list goes on. After a few minutes of yelling at myself, I locked up the car and haven't touched it since.

You guys are probably getting sick of all my stupid questions lately, I would too. How much damage did I do though? I know I fried alot of things, are all of the problems going to be confined to things that were fused to that box?

I cant believe I did this.:cries:
 
Sorry to hear about that but look on the bright side, at least you know no one will be stealing your car anytime soon.
 
It happens, we all do something really stupid at some point.

Disconnect your battery, finish cleaning the fuse panel carefully, make sure to vacuum any particles off carefully afterwards.
Check all your fuses, replace any blow fuses, check for any engine bay fuses you may have blown, replace those.
If your car won't start after that, it's possibly relays, you could have cooked a relay or two, check and or replace.
After that it's possible you have melted or fused some wires, look carefully for any burnt looking wires, although at that point it will be getting harder to fix.
 
Bishop said:
It happens, we all do something really stupid at some point.

Disconnect your battery, finish cleaning the fuse panel carefully, make sure to vacuum any particles off carefully afterwards.
Check all your fuses, replace any blow fuses, check for any engine bay fuses you may have blown, replace those.
If your car won't start after that, it's possibly relays, you could have cooked a relay or two, check and or replace.
After that it's possible you have melted or fused some wires, look carefully for any burnt looking wires, although at that point it will be getting harder to fix.
Click to expand...

Thanks, for the advice. I really appreciate it.
 
Dude, you have to die in order to win a Darwin Award. The fact that you survived and posted here means you cannot be a winner... but you can be a nominee.
 
I'm thinking about it and trying to figure out what could have broken...? I assume this is a 240, so when the key is off then only a few of the fuses are actually hot, most of them won't have any juice. I imagine that your brass or stainless brush jumped the contacts between some of the hot ones and the dead ones, therefore powering up those circuits. The only way it could have "shorted" is if you also touched that little screw that holds the fuse panel down to the wall.

Not sure what to suggest, just keep looking for burnt wires. Maybe your fuel pump relay (big green thing) burnt up, as was suggested.
 
The Aspirator said:
I'm thinking about it and trying to figure out what could have broken...? I assume this is a 240, so when the key is off then only a few of the fuses are actually hot, most of them won't have any juice. I imagine that your brass or stainless brush jumped the contacts between some of the hot ones and the dead ones, therefore powering up those circuits. The only way it could have "shorted" is if you also touched that little screw that holds the fuse panel down to the wall.

Not sure what to suggest, just keep looking for burnt wires. Maybe your fuel pump relay (big green thing) burnt up, as was suggested.
Click to expand...

Yeah, its an 81 240 turbo.

A LITTLE UPDATE:
I didn't do anything and now the car runs and everything seems to work as it did before. I'm still going to check into everything that is connected to the fuse box. However, the lighting for the instrument cluster and the control panel still dont come on, yet all the lights on the outside of the car work.

Could I have screwed up the reostat when I blew the two fuses originally?

Why would everything work now? Is there some kind of overload safety switch or something?
I'm lost.

Sorry for the false alarm.
 
Last edited:
sorry to hear about your problem, but so just you do not feel alone, I was replacing oil and trying to diagnose AC in my 960, and somehow, I`ve forgot to put part 710 back.... not a pretty sight, my wife took this car to work and back, (and stopped by grocery store) and a block away from home she noticed that that weird smell comes from under the hood... what`s interesting oil light never lighted up... i`ve just toped id up, and we will see what will happened tomorrow.
 
even if you clean the fusebox and it sparks, all you are doing is completing the circuit for the dome light and a few other things, i have done it with batt connected before and had no problems... did you have the key on while you were doing this? that could mess something up, but not if the key is off and you have the batt hooked up.
 
500dollar744ti said:
even if you clean the fusebox and it sparks, all you are doing is completing the circuit for the dome light and a few other things, i have done it with batt connected before and had no problems... did you have the key on while you were doing this? that could mess something up, but not if the key is off and you have the batt hooked up.
Click to expand...

I had the ignition on, yes. The really puzzling thing to me is that right after I did it, the warning lights on the dash didn't come on, and the fuel pump didn't make any noise when I turned the key again and I couldn't get the car started. The tach didn't even bounce at all when cranking. Then a couple of days later, after doing nothing to the car since, the car started up exactly the way it always had and everything worked again.:???: Why would it do this?
 
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