At 09:25 AM 3/8/99 -0800, Simmons, Reid W wrote:
>Oh yeah! I'm convinced. When I used to race my G-Production Sprite,
>the SCCA rules made you carry a fire Extinguisher or extinguisher
>system. Why people don't generally do that in their street cars, which
>are far less safe from a fire breaking out, is beyond me.
>
>Reid
>'79 Spitfire
On another occasion where a fire extinguisher is a good idea, but didn't
get deployed was on my Fairmont.
I was out on a railroad line just off the Columbia River in Washington
State. Our caravan of a dozen railroad motorcars (speeders) was about 15
miles from our terminal point. Each car stays about 1 mile apart on the
section blocks so we don't run afoul of each other for signalling or other
problems we might encounter. Little did I know that >I< would be such a
problem on a very hot August day in Eastern Washington. All things were
fine all weekend long with no operational problems with my motorcar at all
until Sunday afternoon on the way back. A bit of wispy smoke came up from
the engine cover and then the wiring harness running from the breaker panel
to my lighting system melted away and started flaming up. The engine died
immediately and the cab filled up with acrid smoke. I hit the brakes and
disengaged the cloth belt clutch pulley, then bailed out of the cab.
Battery on my unit is in the rear so I could disconnect it there before it
got too far. HOT terminals when you have a dead short.
Cause was the center high headlight I use on the car just above the
ditchlights and below the amber strobe we are required to run (like all
railroad equipment). I used an aircraft landing light that puts out a beam
a mile long down the track. That took a lot of current and I had pinched
the cable on a support to the body in one spot I hadn't noticed. Vibration
finally did me in there. A quick set of jumper wires had the coil back in
operation and I was up and running again in a minute or two, but without
all my lights.
Luckily this happened on a flat straight stretch of track- I have broken
down on a very high trestle over a river before and that's no fun at all!
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