Almost lost my Europa

[califkid_66]

Today i decided to go for a ride to get motivation to work on my crossflow
and the fan went on like usual then i smell burning and then lots of smoke i look at the fuse box the wires where melting i just grabbed the wires and ripped them off the fuse box then went in front took off the relay then pulled the battery wire it came off then i was waiting to see hoping it wasn’t gonna burn to the ground
Waited a while and and it was ok
I noticed that the fan power wire was not Fused it was on the wrong side of the fuse box now its in the garage

[dakazman]

Wow Good save!
Dave

[califkid_66]

I was lucky  i hope the damages are only around the fuse box and at the relay im gonna remove the dash and check the wiring
To make sure nothing else got damaged
If it’s damaged i have a rebel wiring kit all labeled that i had for my seven wich would be an improvement but i wanted to keep it all original
Now i added 2 things on my shopping list
Battery cut off switch and fire extinguisher
If i had the cut off as soon as it smelled i could have shut it off

[BDA]

Glad you saved her (and yourself) a lot of potential damage!

[califkid_66]

Thanks i  love that car i drove it a few times and i am addicted
I really thought it was gonna lose her there was a lot of smoke
I am going to install a battery cut off like the ones in vintage racing
better be safe than sorry

[Certified Lotus]

Glad to hear you moved quickly. Yes, master battery switch a very good idea and I don’t drive my Lotus cars without a fire extinguisher mounted in it.

[califkid_66]

Thanks im just glad it’s over i feel so relieved
Just another thing to fix

[Lou Drozdowski]

Lesson learned...Glad you caught it in time.

[califkid_66]

O my god  that’s terrible i just glad i reacted fast enough
Just hope you got another one

[califkid_66]

Was undecided but finally decided to keep everything original so i made a list and i thought
just changing the at both ends was not a good idea so i went i went from relay to fuse box
and im glad i did cause the purple wire was melted to the black ground wire a couple of places
i removed the tape so i can inspect every wire the wiring is all the right colours so that makes it easy
Now i need to go buy the right gage and colours
The first four lines of my list i got from JB ‘s post witch is very helpful

[BDA]

Ugh! I hate it when the smoke escapes from the wires!

Those first four lines are the most important. There are several copies or versions of the Lucas wiring standard on the interwebs. Here's one (https://www.triumphexp.com/article/lucas-colours.html). It's a good thing to hang on the wall of your garage next to your wiring diagram.

[califkid_66]

Yes the first four lines very useful but don’t worry im well prepared i went to print shop and got
Posters of the wiring diagram and the wiring looks pretty much the right colours so im checking every wire and keeping it original up till now the damages are limited to 2 wires the rest were damaged only at the ends

I saw this online i don’t think im gonna need anymore!!

[BDA]

Yes, you don't need that anymore. It's for positive ground wires. You'll need this:    

[jbcollier]

What caused the short?

[dakazman]

Confirmed,
That’s why I intend to run that section of the harness thru pvc tubing. Dirt and wire movement chafing.
Good find!
Dakazman