Has anyone had motoring nightmares – No I don’t mean in real life (thankfully I have had none of those) I have had a few about my TR6.
One recurring one is to open the garage door all eager for a nice spin in it only to find a TR6 body shell lying on the floor. Bloody thieves.
Fire is another one – the biggest risk to owning an old car is fire. I have an extinguisher in mine but am considering fitting ‘kill switches’ to all of them.
Has anyone fitted these and how difficult are they to fit.
www.autoexpress.co.uk/product_test/49328/fire_extinguishers.html
www.allianzgroup.com/azgrp/dp/cda/0,,35360-44,00.html
A story from the net on the benefit of kill switches - worth reading.
Kill switches:
Quite a few years ago, Dr. Spuds told me about a friend of his who was (is) a TR6 owner. Spuds' friend had not driven his TR6 for a couple of years, and then had decided to start using it again. One day, the friend was out with the TR6. While the TR6 was parked and shut off and the owner was in a store, the TR6 caught fire.
This story had quite an impact on me. While we joke about the Prince of Darkness and the frequency of electrical component failure, the thought of my TR6 catching fire while unattended was very disturbing to me. Under the worst of circumstances, this could result in the loss of my TR6, and depending on where it was parked, the loss of my garage and my other cars. For those who have an attached garage, it could result in the loss of a home.
I knew from my experience as a corner worker that race cars were required to have a master power disconnect. These master power disconnects, also known as kill switches, are required so that the electrical system of a race car can immediately be shut down in the event of an emergency. I decided to buy and install one of these switches in my TR6, and to shut off the electrical power whenever I parked my car.
My son and I were driving home from the VTR Convention in Portland, Maine on Sunday night, August 1st. It was about 10:30 PM and we were on a back road in western New York State, heading back to the main highway. We had about 120 miles to go to get to our motel. My TR6 was the 4th car in our 4 car ISOA caravan. I drove over a bump, and suddenly my dash lights went out. I could also smell smoke. I pulled over to the shoulder and turned off the headlights and the ignition. The dash lights came back on and the smoke continued! I reached over to my kill switch and turned off the power, and the smoke stopped. Thanks to the resourcefulness of those I was travelling with, I was ultimately able to drive the car home. However, this winter, I will need to replace the entire wiring harness. Maybe someone can tell me why my wires melted but my fuses did not.
While lying awake in my motel thinking about what had happened earlier that night, I was convinced that without the kill switch, I would probably be the owner of the burned out remains of a 74 TR6. This failure had occurred on an unlit side road. Without the kill switch, in the total darkness, I would have had to find my tool bag in the loaded trunk, find a ½" wrench from within the tool bag, open the hood, and disconnect the battery. All of this would have needed to happen while the wiring was burning and melting and maybe igniting. Much of the melted wiring harness runs under carpeting, 25 year old, dried out carpeting. An electrical fire was definitely a possibility. Not a good scene.
Master power disconnects, or kill switches, are not expensive and are readily available. They are easy to install (if I can do it, anyone can). If you're worried about losing a point or 2 in Concours judging because you have one of these, they can easily be hidden with a little thought, and still be accessible to do what you need to do if you ever have to. I hope you never have to.
A couple of additional thoughts:
The style of switch I use has a removable key. A side benefit of this installation is that it makes an effective yet simple anti-theft device.
I have carried a fluorescent 12v in the trunk of my car for years. With that in the car, I never felt the need to carry a flashlight. WRONG! I now know that a good flashlight is still a necessity even with the trouble light.
One recurring one is to open the garage door all eager for a nice spin in it only to find a TR6 body shell lying on the floor. Bloody thieves.
Fire is another one – the biggest risk to owning an old car is fire. I have an extinguisher in mine but am considering fitting ‘kill switches’ to all of them.
Has anyone fitted these and how difficult are they to fit.
www.autoexpress.co.uk/product_test/49328/fire_extinguishers.html
www.allianzgroup.com/azgrp/dp/cda/0,,35360-44,00.html
A story from the net on the benefit of kill switches - worth reading.
Kill switches:
Quite a few years ago, Dr. Spuds told me about a friend of his who was (is) a TR6 owner. Spuds' friend had not driven his TR6 for a couple of years, and then had decided to start using it again. One day, the friend was out with the TR6. While the TR6 was parked and shut off and the owner was in a store, the TR6 caught fire.
This story had quite an impact on me. While we joke about the Prince of Darkness and the frequency of electrical component failure, the thought of my TR6 catching fire while unattended was very disturbing to me. Under the worst of circumstances, this could result in the loss of my TR6, and depending on where it was parked, the loss of my garage and my other cars. For those who have an attached garage, it could result in the loss of a home.
I knew from my experience as a corner worker that race cars were required to have a master power disconnect. These master power disconnects, also known as kill switches, are required so that the electrical system of a race car can immediately be shut down in the event of an emergency. I decided to buy and install one of these switches in my TR6, and to shut off the electrical power whenever I parked my car.
My son and I were driving home from the VTR Convention in Portland, Maine on Sunday night, August 1st. It was about 10:30 PM and we were on a back road in western New York State, heading back to the main highway. We had about 120 miles to go to get to our motel. My TR6 was the 4th car in our 4 car ISOA caravan. I drove over a bump, and suddenly my dash lights went out. I could also smell smoke. I pulled over to the shoulder and turned off the headlights and the ignition. The dash lights came back on and the smoke continued! I reached over to my kill switch and turned off the power, and the smoke stopped. Thanks to the resourcefulness of those I was travelling with, I was ultimately able to drive the car home. However, this winter, I will need to replace the entire wiring harness. Maybe someone can tell me why my wires melted but my fuses did not.
While lying awake in my motel thinking about what had happened earlier that night, I was convinced that without the kill switch, I would probably be the owner of the burned out remains of a 74 TR6. This failure had occurred on an unlit side road. Without the kill switch, in the total darkness, I would have had to find my tool bag in the loaded trunk, find a ½" wrench from within the tool bag, open the hood, and disconnect the battery. All of this would have needed to happen while the wiring was burning and melting and maybe igniting. Much of the melted wiring harness runs under carpeting, 25 year old, dried out carpeting. An electrical fire was definitely a possibility. Not a good scene.
Master power disconnects, or kill switches, are not expensive and are readily available. They are easy to install (if I can do it, anyone can). If you're worried about losing a point or 2 in Concours judging because you have one of these, they can easily be hidden with a little thought, and still be accessible to do what you need to do if you ever have to. I hope you never have to.
A couple of additional thoughts:
The style of switch I use has a removable key. A side benefit of this installation is that it makes an effective yet simple anti-theft device.
I have carried a fluorescent 12v in the trunk of my car for years. With that in the car, I never felt the need to carry a flashlight. WRONG! I now know that a good flashlight is still a necessity even with the trouble light.