Smoke out of steering column

[james_conti]

I have a 1970 Porsche 914 rebuild, with wiring that was literally done in a high school's machine shop (blame the previous owner's nephew for that). The students apparently had no idea what they were doing, as there are some serious shorts throughout the electrical system. The most pressing problem is that the other day, with my left turn signal on, greenish smoke began pouring out of the steering column right where the turn signal switch was. I removed the fuses for the turn signal and drove home, and now I want to know what may be the problem. Any advice?

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Re-wiring like that means that pretty much everything is unknown. Smoke from the steering column is never a good thing, though. Chances are you had "something" short (most likely in the left turn signal circuit, but not necessarily!!) to ground and you burned up some of the wiring. Perhaps the switch has burned instead or as well? You'll have to take it apart and look.

I hate to tell you this, but I think your best bet is trolling the classifieds section here and on the 914world website for an early wiring harness. Don't get one that's been cut; it is very possible to remove the harness from the car without cutting anything. Sir Andy on the World site has a good post (complete with pics!) on how to R&R the main harness from a 70 or 71 car.

--DD

[Jack Stands]

You must realize that once the smoke has left an electrical system, the components will not work. In the old days, Lucas used to sell cans of 'Electrical Smoke' so you could replenish the supply and get the system working once again.

Dave's suggestion is the best advice as you can then get back to the original system that can then be traced and serviced by anyone.

[Jack Stands]

[Cairo94507]

Listen to Dave and bite the bullet and do it right and solve your problems so you don't have the car burn up down the road.

[TheCabinetmaker]

There are some factory wires in the steering column that do fail ad end up melting a lot of the adjacent wires in the harness. I forget exactly what circuit it is , happened to my friends car, I think it was one of the turn signal wires or maybe the wiper or high beam wires 9I hate it when car makers cram all them functions on a arm off the column, what ever happened to reliable push buttons on the dash??? the early 914's are better, no stinking wipers switch on the column to fail or to be easily bumped when turning the wheel!!!

at anyrate pull it apart and trace the damage to the source. be sure to disconnect your battery before disassembly.