RE: {Chrysler 300} Caution to all J/RamK owners or anyone using 63-64 he

John, yes, correct that factory cable for 413 had braided sleeve over cable, maybe had asbestos?? I don’t know.

Always count blessings, could have been a catastrophic fire (fire extinguisher in trunk, but maybe too late, going 70 mph?).

I have high-temp heat wrap, not stock looking, who cares – it is functional and not really visible from above.

Also must use heat wrap or sleeves on most spark plug wires, especially near plugs , I did that, might add more now! Else, your plug wires will not last long!

Good points on PS hoses. Ram pressure hose should go over rams, avoids headers, John Begian had them made up but out of stock currently (we need more!).

Carl

From: John Grady
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2023 6:06 PM
To: Carl
Cc: 'John' via Chrysler 300 Club International
Subject: Re: {Chrysler 300} Caution to all J/RamK owners or anyone using 63-64 headers re. pos. battery cable

good save , Carl !

didn’t some ( or all)

300 have a loom like braided sleeve over the cable ? problem may not be the cable , any plastic cable will melt if hot enough .

They sell fiberglas heat sleeve , like spark

plug sleeves , but may be objectionable due to white color . maybe a short piece ok or paint with hi temp BBQ paint ?

on another car with similar proximity issue , i

I added a lined P clamp to sheet metal to hold it away , even with a sleeve . But may need “ more rope “ ( longer cable and wire ) , another I remember tying it to PS hose . PS hose has the problem too , depending on many things .

If it actually burned through to copper on header all hell would have broken

loose . Dead short on full battery . You re lucky in a way .

Thanks for making us all wiser!

jkg

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 28, 2023, at 6:44 PM, Carl <cbilter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Yesterday I drove the J up to Mopars on the Mississippi in Dubuque, IA, and it ran and drove great – until – about 2 minutes from my destination, when suddenly and without warning, a terrible noise began emanating from the engine compartment. Sounded like a really bad water pump, but temp. gauge good. Noticed the ammeter pegged on charge – electrical malfunction – with no place to pull over I briskly made a mad dash to the show, pulled in and pulled over, shut the ignition off, removed the key – starter motor kept running!

Fortunately, I had a ½” wrench in the console (ALWAYS carry one), popped the hood, removed the negative cable, assessed damage. Nothing visible, but bad burned rubber smell. Quickly determined it must be a stuck solenoid or bad starter relay (that turned out to be wrong). Our buddy Noel came over with a spare starter relay, which I installed, no change. Fortunately, local buddy and long-time member Dave Schwandt was able to come out with his 3500 Dually and his son’s trailer, and we loaded up the J and took it back to Cedar Rapids.

Diagnosis today – took all of 3 minutes – positive battery cable from the starter relay to the starter motor, insulation burned right through, battery cable and solenoid wire then shorted, starter engaged continuously. This was a reproduction cable from the Inc. 300 Club, with no heat shielding. When I installed the cable I purposely made sure it was a couple inches away from the header. It ran near the heat pipe, but that wasn’t the issue. Evidently, on a long run, the header gets so hot that it was enough to melt all the insulation. I had heat wrap on the shift cable, as that had been damaged long ago due to running over the header, but didn’t wrap the repop battery cable.

Lesson: cable MUST be heat wrapped, or do NOT use the Inc. club repop cable Note: Quirey now reproduces the proper cable I believe; Jamie can confirm. The photo below shows the damage – see lower center of photo. This cable is NOT sitting against the header, but it still burned.

Carl B.

Older and now wiser

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RE: {Chrysler 300} Caution to all J/RamK owners or anyone using 63-64 headers re. pos. battery cable