I'm getting pretty close to wrapping up quite a bit of work on my car and today I was tidying up some wiring. I had a loose ground connection and thought I knew where it was supposed to go and I hooked it up to the starter relay in the right rear corner of the engine bay.

When I went to start the car a bit later there was a big "poof" of smoke that came out of the starter relay. It would appear that I'd connected the ground to the side of the relay that kicks in when it tries to fire the starter solenoid. Oops. As we all know, when a Lucas electrical component loses all its smoke it stops working.



I think I'll pop one of the Chrysler replacements in tomorrow. Let that be a lesson to me. :-P

 

Yep, the smoked exiting the component is a dead give away. If they had sealed those things better the smoke would stay inside and all would be OK.

Time for a few JD's, I reckon.