Thought the '63 was toast today!

[TagMan]

I was running some errands in my '63 short wide, this afternoon, when all of a sudden the engine quit and smoke started coming out of the speaker grill on the dash. I managed to get the truck off the road (of course it was a busy road!) and shut down. By this time, the cab stunk of the acrid smell of burnt plastic wire casing.

I grabbed the fire extinguisher (I never leave home without one), but there weren't any flames to be seen. I poked around under the dash, but couldn't feel any hot wires or see any damage. Just for the heck of it, I tried to start it back up and it surprised me, when it started up and purred as usual. No smoke!

I drove back home and noticed during the drive that the cheap tachometer that was in the truck when I bought it, was acting erratically. I was always going to remove it, but never seemed to have the time. I got home and took the time, removing the tach and wires. The tach stunk and when I took it apart, there were a couple of chared electrical components that had failed. Lots of smoke from such little gizmos.

Thankfully the problem didn't seem to harm my HEI, but I think I aged about 10-years as a result!