When do you call it quits

You're right Steve - it's 1977 wiring, so I should be happy it lasted this long.
When I picked up the 308 a couple of months ago, it was with the intention of selling the Alfa - and I knew the Alfa needed an engine rebuild. I was so happy to finish the engine work - now I have some electrical work to do as well...

Old wiring/old electrical bits BULL CHIPS is why I decided to completely rewire my Corolla. I now have brand new wiring, that is designed more for longevity, then saving a few pennies. It uses COMMON relays (under $10 each), and micro fuses. the complete harness from EZ wiring was under $200.00, the relay block was about $45 on ebaY

I give up on a car when I'd rather give it away than look at it again. Last time that happened, I sold a $500 car for $50 just so it would disappear. Guy got it running with a few parts and it's still bombing around town. I don't care that the fix was easy, I pointed out the worth that needed to be done and he did it. I got to the point that I was going to have the high school welding teacher come pick it up so the kids had some sheet metal to work with. I even offered to crash it for them so they could learn how to do auto body repair.

Gotta take a break on this stuff from time to time. In Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig refers to setbacks like these as 'gumption traps.' They can sap your desire to keep working, and if you try to push on through them you can easily wind up frustrating yourself and, as he puts it, work your problems into the machine.

Hell, I've walked away from a motorcycle project for over a year because I couldn't spend more than an hour or two on it without something else going wrong and setting me back. I took the hint that I wasn't in the right mind to work on it, and just put it away for a while. This is supposed to be fun, after all.

Things have a different perspective after a bit of a break - thanks for your encouragement. 

So I came home tonight and took a good look at the car. I found the source of the problem - the positive lead from the battery brushed against one of the carbs (I forgot this one critical connection). So when I reconnected the battery, the electrons made their way through the throttle cable, to one of the heater cables and to the console. The burnt wires under the console were the thinner gauge ground wires that can be easily replaced. So, it requires several small wires to be replaced and some cleanup but its actually pretty good. The real wires for the switches, the wires under the dashboard, and even the fusebox are all really good.

So, I cut away the charred remnants and next I attempted to start the car. It cranks over pretty good but did not start. The battery is a bit low on charge (I wonder why ) so I have the battery out of the car and on the charger. I will attempt to start it tomorrow night.

Cheers, Paul

Good job! It's a start. Don't forget to prime the oil pump or turn it over without the plugs in until the oil light goes off.

That's great news.....

Everyone who does this loses momentum occasionally. A string of rainy days coupled with an entire 60 year old house I'm restoring and only one of five cars functional can make me a bit blue.

That the season is fully underway and my sole participation was instructing one day of HPDE, 3 months ago.

I have about $7000 in parts lined up for the race car and M3 and only last weekend took most of a day to rearrange the garage so both cars are in the air, accessible, and with a reasonable shot at being ready by 7/12 - race car - and "in time to be at Summit Point for a 7:00 AM drivers meeting Sunday 6/17" - M3.

It does make you stronger, you learn a lot, and you have a sense of accomplishment - or relief - that you don't get from completing levels of a video game or watching TV...

The dry extinguisher chemical is methyl ethyl bad E36 M3. It is very corrosive especially to aluminum. Wash that car well.

motomoron wrote: "in time to be at Summit Point for a 7:00 AM drivers meeting Sunday 6/17" - M3.

What are you going to be doing at Summit Point? I'll be there in the Lemons race on the Shenandoah circuit. I'm driving Sonic's boat car and the dustbuster Civic wagovan.

eastpark wrote: In reply to Trans_Maro: Yes, it was a dry chemical extinguisher. Thanks for all the replies folks. I'm going to call the insurance today and see what they say. The only thing that really gets me down is that I was all set to make the first attempt to start it up for the first time.

You know that if you tried to start it once more, burned wires and all, it will miraculously start like Lazarus's rise from the dead.

Thanks.
The one thing I'm really shaking my head on this, is that if the battery cable end would have been resting on the block or the inner fender, then I would not have had the issue - as it would have shorted right when I re-connected the battery. But of course it had to rest against one of the carbs, which on this engine are rubber isolated - so the current flowed through the throttle cable.

I know - coulda, woulda, shouda...
At the end of the day, I didn't burn the garage down and I learned something new - so I guess things aren't all bad.