Today is my birthday and last night right after midnight, the god's must have decided to give me a break because I found the short to ground - the conductor was skinned.

I bought this car as a no-start after the original owner had replaced almost anything attached to the engine and given up the battle. I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach because I have already reversed some of his wiring expedients in the tailgate and the radio install.

I first thought the Coolant Temp Sensor had gone south because at one point in time it showed 0 resistance to ground at the LH Control Unit connector. Since the Temp Sensor is such a pain-in-the-ass to exchange, I hooked up a test plug to isolate it and checked it on the engine - it read good. So with both ends free, I rung out the conductor to the LH Control Unit which showed that it had gone to ground . . . at first. Then the short cleared itself and I could not resurrect it no matter what I probed or shook.

This led me on a wild goose chase throughout the engine compartment and beyond. Now, every time I checked the FI Temp Sensor circuit, it proved good, but once I buttoned everything up and tried the car, it still idled like a pig.

Knowing how capricious shorts can be and grasping for straws, I decided to spare the Temp Sensor conductor and marry a tough machine tool wire to the outside of the wiring loom, tucking it in at both ends. The taping at the Control Unit end had obviously been previously removed and I thought I would redress it while I was adding the conductor. Just by chance and half-blinded by the glare of a trouble light, as I removed the old tape I saw the glint of some clean copper. A small patch of insulation had been skinned off the conductor. Eyeballing things up, the bared conductor must have been contacting the cable clamp.

I breathed a deep sigh of relief because when I bought the car it had been sitting in a farmyard for a few months and I was worried that some little creature had created a whore's nightmare by snacking on the car's wiring.

Rich

PS - "You may be fully qualified to say that, but you'd be one of a very few on this board."

This puzzles me. I doubt that FEW on this board would not recognize a dead short whenever it rears its ugly head. As far as MY ability to notice a short to ground, let me tell you about the grandest ground fault in my experience.

About 40 years ago (it pains me to say that), I was standing on the decking beside an 8000 HP, 13.2 KV vertical Primary Coolant Pump Motor at Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, near Baltimore, getting ready to breathe life into that monster for the first time. As the start-up approached, I heard the rotor hydraulic lift pumps come on. Then, . . . . five, four, three, two, one . . . KA-BLAM! Have you ever been within 50 feet of 13.2 KV going to ground? I thought some joker had set off an M-80 under my hardhat!

When the dust settled, we found one of the HV phases had shorted to ground. I took it personally because I had mother-henned that system from day one and had made a nuisance of myself with the competent craftsmen who had done this ballet many times before. They were bemused, took it in stride and then taught me a lot about the realities of engineering.

While we were regrouping from this catastrophe, I said to the area superintendent in charge of the men working with the tools, "What did I do wrong?" That system had been signal-traced, hy-potted and meggared to within an inch of its life. This flinty veteran of many such battles had mercy on me and said it was probably just the electricians looking for some overtime (double time, at that). He said all it takes to send 13.2 to ground is a straight pin and a pencil line.

I learned one thing that day so long ago - don't screw with the IBEW.