Broke my wagon today

Well, I took my wagon back to the Goodguys show today and the weather cleared up so they opened up the Autocross. I wanted to test out my new suspension so I went over to the track, passed tech inspection and was on my way. Since this was my first time, I went slow the first time around (time was 1:03, fastest time posted was 40 seconds by a bad-ass Camaro sponsored by DSE).

2nd time out - 53 seconds. Got a little braver, more speed, harder braking. All is well - I'm feeling pretty good!

3rd time out - 52 seconds. Little more speed, little faster into the turns.

Last time out - 50 seconds! About as fast as I dared - I'm feeling pretty cool! I exit the track and about then I notice smoke coming out from under the hood. I clear the track, get into the parking lot, turn it off but it doesn't turn off! I had my travel tool kit with me so I popped the hood and see my wiring harness smoking and the car making bad noises - the starter was engaged. I got the battery disconnected but not before the harness was nice and melted. Bummer - but repairable. Here's the pics:






Because I broke it while racing, I'm strangely not at all mad - kind of a badge of honor! I had to have it towed home (I'm a member of AAA so no big deal there either). Not sure where the short occurred, but I'm going to put a new harness in and make sure it's Autocross worthy.

BTW - I had the fastest wagon time and the crowd was giving me cheers and lots of thumbs up each time I went out. There were 3 other wagons on the course too, but they were being very gentlemanly out there. I was driving it like I stole it! Big fun!

This probably would/could have happened while I was driving to the event, and if it did, I would have been cursing the wagon for being unreliable. Since it happened while racing it - I'm proud of the old girl! Hope my Optima Red Top is OK!

 

bummer about getting fried but congrats on having a blast with the wagon!

 

Hey, good job. Seems like you took to auto-X real well. Consistent improvement. No big deal with the wiring. Just figure out what caused it.

 

That is truely a badge of Honor. Last year I blew the engine in my Olds at a track event at NJMP and was not mad at all. Infact I knew going into that weekend I was going to break something. I threw it on the hauler and made the trip home. Just wish I had gotten more track time.

 

I would suspect either the alternator/voltage regulator or the starter relay. The good thing is that relays are dirt cheap. OEM is the way to go if you can find one. They are not easy to come by. I also run 1 gauge batter cables just for the extra capacity.

 

About all I can add is-----broke it while havin fun.!

Damned kids !

 

Tearing up the autocross in a wagon, awesome. And now you get to upgrade, fusible links, modern relays and such.

 

i can feel your pain, did the to my lebaron. what happened to us was that we connected the hot wire to the ground wire screw on the alt and connected the ground wire to the hot wire screw on the alt. a very very stupid mistake by our part. shes all fixed and running now though! hope you get yours back up and running soon! shes a beaut!

 

Thanks everybody for the encouragement. And thanks for the "Kid" reference Denny! I went back out to the Goodguys show today to visit the vendors selling wiring kits. Sunday is "Super Sunday", where any year American powered car can enter the show and the Autocross. Saw a 2000 Vette hit the retaining wall - crumpled up the front end pretty good. He's got thousands in repairs, while mine should be less than $500 all said and done. Plus, as Maks points out, I'm taking the opportunity to make it all more reliable.


Upon further inspection this morning, I broke my parking brake too! Saw the cables hanging low - not sure exactly what came loose, but another opportunity to make it a little better.


Met a lot of cool folks at the Autocross. Got to ride with Tyler Gibson in his '47 Chevy PU. Check out his ride: http://www.ridetech.com/garage/2012/05/tyler-gibsons-47-chevy/

Here's a pic:
He won his class this year and was 10ths of a second from winning it all. The scariest, most exhilarating, fun thing I've done in a long time. He saw me running the wagon and we got to talking. He showed me the fast way around the track - I couldn't stop laughing and smiling! I've done 150 mph around a track, parachuted from a C-130, white-water rafted - those were all leisurely strolls compared to riding with Tyler. He's my new hero!

This newly-acquired autocross habit I'm developing is gonna get expensive....but damn, it's so much fun! I need more horsepower and bigger brakes!

 

I need more horsepower and bigger brakes!


Went thru all this with our now 23 year old son. He got into 1/4 mile drags with his 1976 El Camino show car. Then into mudbogging with it! That was taking fun a little too far. Kept telling him it was gonna get ugly and expensive.
He had a decent Ranger pick up also for work and play. Tore them both up, plus others. Now he has nothing and walks or begs his girlfriend's parents to take him places. I refused.
If you have the extra money to play, have fun kid. But he didn't. I missed a lot of excitement because I started raising a family and was into RV's and custom cars. None of those go real fast. Enjoy the thrills but stay safe and don't get too deep into it.

 

Are you on Pro-Touring.com yet? I have talked with Tyler a bunch over there.

 

Thanks Stickman - When I was talking to Tyler he was telling me about some websites to checkout related to autocross, but I was so excited about being out there I forgot the names! He told me about an autocross school here in the KC area that I'm going to investigate.

I want a wagon that I can take on a 1,000 mile trip in relative comfort, with the A/C on and get reasonable gas mileage, and then be able to hammer it on an autocross course. It's all about compromises - give a little here to get a little there. Give up a little ride comfort to go faster, give up a little HP to have the A/C keeping me cool. I spent a lot of time looking over the top runners; I'm not going that hard-core. None of those guys had A/C, or even a radio. I want to surprise folks when they see the wagon perform.

I don't want to tear up my wagon, so as Dirty Harry says "a man's got to know his limitations" (let's not debate Clint's appearance at the RNC last week!). I promise not to take it mud-bogging! Just want to surprise the occasional Mustang/Camaro :icon_drive:

 

Sounds alot like me and my wagon. There are alot of high dollar cars over at Pro-Touring.com but there is also a decent group of what we termed ourselves as poorboys. BTW wait till you try a track event in a wagon. Take a look at my build thread either here or at PT. You can also look at my youtube videos. A bit shaky but you will get the idea. The most recent AutoX are in the Volvo Wagon the others are in the Olds.

 

Wow Stickman - went through your entire thread - you've done a ton of work to your wagon! I found your Volvo Wagon videos a month ago but not through this site - I was surfing around you tube and ran into them. Didn't put it together that you were the same Stickman from this forum.

I just bought a Painless Wiring harness for my wagon through Speedway Motors . Should be here by Friday. Going to spend the time until then removing the old wiring, labeling everything and taking lots of pics. Anyone ever use a Painless Wiring kit? Any advice? I've pieced together wiring but never replaced an entire harness.

 

Yup that's me. I am all over. Gee you could do EFI wiring while you're under the hood?