The main positive wire going from the battery directly to the starter should not be allowed to come in contact with headers, even for an extremely short period of time.

I will call my little experiment a success.



It sounded good while it was running, and everything appears to be OK, other than the fact that the postive wire got burned up shutting the car off.

I'm curious to see how many fuses are blown!

Do any parts stores carry that wire, or do I have to buy a generic one?

 

I would move the + cable away from the headers and then try to restart, just to see if it will. The fusible link down near the starter may be toasted (or some other fuse). If it won't start, at least you won't have to wonder if it is the new cable or not.

As far as getting a new cable goes, you may want to try a junk yard or one of the sponsors of this site. The stock cable has a hold down that bolts to the frame to help prevent what happened to you.

Best-
S-D

My friend has 66 Nova that he put an engine into and couldn't wait to get started. He started it and roasted a brand new set of MSD wires on his headers. I guess that stuff happens sometimes.
Best-

 

I eneded up picking up a generic one from Autozone and spliced in the stuff I needed. I did get a 45" cable even though our cables are slightly over 24". It allowed me to route it and stay far away from the exhaust.

 

i put a remote solonoid on the chassis behind and inbored of the battery. i routed the positive cable ( now only hot when cranking!) under the headers with some fiberglass/rubber sheathing for extra protection

 

That's an excellent idea. I had thought of doing something similiar, but it's not in the cards at the moment.