Fire

I had a '29 phaeton with the correct style stoplight switch, but it was a poor quality repop. One day I was sitting in the car while my friend went into a convenience store to buy some beer. I started smelling something burning and it was coming from underneath the car. I jumped out of the driver's seat and looked under the car. The crappy stoplight switch was smoking real bad with a tiny bit of flame. I immediately started ripping wires off the switch.
I replaced the switch not long after with another 'not so great' quality one. However this time I disassembled the replacement switch and checked/corrected anything in it that might cause a short.;)

Bob-A:cool:

"Skirts are for Women not Car Fenders"
 
Other reasons....wife has had enough, kids don't want to inherit it, insurance fraud, neighbors can't take the curse words at all hours of the night. I guess there are lots of reasons the old gals just burn up!!!
 
Suggestion:

1. Replace the old rotten and frayed wire loom before it catches on fire.

2. Install a fuse in the car.

I did both of these after an electrical fire in the coupe. That was 1963 and have not a problem since then.

By the way. It is very common for the cheap Chinese stop switches to short out. It is the way that they are designed that causes them to short out.

Berts Model A Ford sells the correctly manufactured switches.

www.modelastore.com

I had a cheap switch short out on the Coupe a couple of times before I figured it out. No fire ... it just blew the fuse!
 
Many of the after market 1931 style dash lamps may short out. Mine did, without even using it on a sunny day going to a show. I have a fuse installed and it blew, OK, had a spare and off I went after disconnecting the lamp wire. I bought an original lamp that only needed light cleaning and a new wire soldered on.
 
In the mid 1960's while driving home from college in my 1930 coupe, I stopped at a gas station along highway 101 in California. It was closed because of a fire. This was an old wooden gas station which no longer exist. The owner explained that a Model A had pulled up for gas and caught fire. It burned up the car and the gas station. The cause? A leaky fuel gauge and a spark at the ignition switch. It could have been the switch or the switch contacts hitting the tank causing a spark.
 
nkaminar said:
In the mid 1960's while driving home from college in my 1930 coupe, I stopped at a gas station along highway 101 in California. It was closed because of a fire. This was an old wooden gas station which no longer exist. The owner explained that a Model A had pulled up for gas and caught fire. It burned up the car and the gas station. The cause? A leaky fuel gauge and a spark at the ignition switch. It could have been the switch or the switch contacts hitting the tank causing a spark.
Click to expand...

About post #7 and my 1963 fire. I had a leaking gas gauge and was removing the dash panel to fix it.

I did not know that the wires behind the panel were old and frayed.

I disturbed one of the wires when I removed the panel and one of them shorted and started a huge smoky fire.

My friend was watching all of this. He said that I MADE 3 TRIPS TO THE TOOLBOX, in my panic, before I got the correct sized wrench to remove the battery cable.

Lucky for me the gas leak was very small and did not fuel the fire very much, all the smoke was from the old wires burning. We could have lost the house and attached garage.

Hint, what I learned ...
1. So if you do not have a fuse, remove the ground cable BEFORE you start any electrical work.
 
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modelastore.com

A-13480-A Stop Light Switch Assembly- 1928-29

brake light switch brake switch
modelastore.com


Hint:
See photo, Click to see larger photo,

The problem with cheap brake switches that the rod on the switch is too short. So if the switch is not adjusted correctly or is the cheap switch (with short rod), the rod is pulled inside the switch.

Then the rod drops down on the wiring (brass strips) inside and shorts out on the wiring inside.

If no fuse then the wiring smokes until you disconnect the battery.

Note this can also happen on the correctly made switches also if switch linkage is miss-adjusted but not as likely.
 

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Speaking of cars on fire , when the fire gets to the fuel tank the fire get larger , when the fire gets to a tire the air in the tire expands and then explodes blowing the fenders off ! Stay clear of the tires !!
 
I had a short that was ruining my fuses. after some searching, found out it way my cheap repro ammeter. the plastic screw caps were melted.

put in a repro dash light and the metal cable rested on something else metal in the instrumation panel and also shorted and started melting something.
i almost cried because those things are unobtanium status.
luckily it still worked. wrapped it insulation tape, then wrapped it again for good meausre.

thankfully no issue yet.
 
A friend of mine left the gas valve on and his truck leaked gas on the floor. The truck was in the garage near the gas water heater which
ignited the fuel. I Always Turn the Gas Off even on short stops at the store.
 
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