The Miss and the Culprit
 

A few weeks after I bought my Lava V8 I started getting a short engine shutoff on hard shifts into 2nd or 3rd. I spent a lot of time investigating the GM fuse box, new relays, new terminals in the box for the relays and other things.

The problem progressed to getting the shutoff on certain types of bumps, mostly when the rear end hit a bump that dropped down first. It happened a few times a week but this past weekend at the FM Summer Camp it got a lot worse. I counted 29 instances of it driving between the track and the FM shop, all from bumps in the road.

Earlier I had asked Jeremy to investigate it but got "the shop is booked up until next year and if you leave it I will try to fit it in between major jobs". This time I got on my knees begging him to at least take a drive and experience the problem we had been talking about for months.

He finally consented to a drive but the roads near the FM shop are all very smooth and didn't present the problem. I asked him to take it on some of the unpaved roads and he finally did and felt the problem. He drove it back to the shop and onto a lift. He and Eric spent about 15 minutes looking around and called me over.

He reached up next to the passenger side header and moved a red battery cable over to touch the header. Sparks flew. They removed the battery cable between the starter and alternator which had a loop in it to take up extra length. They removed the extra length with the burnt insulation and re-installed the cable. No more shutoffs since them.:appl:

I hadn't noticed that cable near the header and wouldn't have seen the burned part without pushing the cable against the header.

https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1438717215

Glad it was something simple. Have seen similar in the past with several V8 converted Miatas. Luckily you found it before the car caught on fire.


Bill S.

Yes, very lucky.

You also should give FM and Jeremy credit for the time they took in a busy schedule to resolve the issue. Fm is another of the great vendors supporting the Miata community.

They not only got credit for finding and fixing the problem in post #1, when they declined to write up a bill for their time, each was tipped in cash and given effusive thanks before I left. I also let Bill and many others know what had happened and gave the credit to them.

I am one of FM's biggest supporters and customers. I'm the only one besides Bill and Teri who has attended all 18 Open Houses/Summer Camps and I am a member of their Executive Club which means I have spent over $25k at FM.

Nice! Wow the simple stuff that could have been one big fire waiting to happen. Soo glad it worked out so well!

Thanks for posting this!