I have a 1992 trans am gta 5.7l 350 v8 which had an aftermarket alarm installed (what looked rather poorly).

I had to re-wire some power cables to the battery (including what I thought to be some wire & black object). This black object, now thinking back on it, must have been some sort of variable resistance. Unwisely, I cut the black object out of the circuit (& dunno where it is now).

~1 month later engine goes into flames in rainy whether. Also entire right side of engine burt up( burnt charcoal cannister, cruise control module, various vacuum hoses, the alarm horn / wiring, other wiring housing, some a/c tubes). I will try and attach pic soon. Car still runs, battery lost juice and died on me. Put in newly charged battery and ran fine. All gauges out (blew a fuse most likely), but headlights / tailights work.

What I need is some advice and wiring diagrams / place to get ahold of shop manual.

 

You have a wiring nitemare going on there. When I first bought my 87 GTA it to suffered a engine fire, but it took out everything burnable under the hood. My advice to you would be do what I did, I got a wiring harness for the headlights and a computer harness from a used car and installed it to my car. i saved alot of time by doing it that way than trying to splice the old harness back together or paying somebody to do it. Thats just my opinion though but which ever way you go good luck with it.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I just ordered the factory service manual for a 1992 firebird. Not *everything* under the hood was burnt, the headlight assembly works fine still.

So, you'd recommend me finding whatever wiring harness I need instead of re-running all the wire? I was actually leaning the other way, but after i shop-vac all the burnt crap and fire retardant i'll have a better idea what to do.

it really is amazing that the car still runs =)

By chance, do you have wiring diagrams for your car? I'm sure ours cannot be that different ... 87 GTA vs 92 GTA.

I was looking for parts online (charcoal cannister / cruise control module / etc ) but I suppose there is no substitue for a pick-your-part.

guess that means i'll be making a trip to chula vista

thanks for your help, and if anybody else has any advice i'd be appreciative =)

 

I have a 88 firebird service manual at work but I would tend to think that they would be different because the 92 firebirds had the air bag where the 88's didn't. What I meant earlier was if you find out that you have like 50 or so wires that are totally burnt then it might be easier/faster to replace the harness as a whole, But if you only have 2 wires that are burnt and are shorting out then I would say just repair those 2 and be on your way. In my case every single wire under the hood was cooked so I didn't have a choice. Good luck on getting it fixed.

 

Ok, a full day's work and $200 dollars later, car runs great.

i completely took out the cruise control & charcoal cannister module, plugged up any hoses / taped up wires.

cut and taped all aftermarket alarm wires

ran 4 gauge wire from altenator to (new digial) battery terminal

cut the burnt wire out of the system, put in clean wires, soldered them, taped the *** out of the open wire, and finally put in a wire loom.

the guages fuse blew, replaced it

now, i gotta replace the surpentine belt, upper radiator hose, and one of the hoses for power steering, but all in all, not bad =)

$200 for me to do it vs a quote of $2000 from the shop, that feels good