Melted B&M Shift Cable

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ramcharger

ramcharger

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Well, went for a test cruise to calibrate the electronic speedo last night. Pulled in the drive, put it park and ran in for a coke. Came back out and tried to put it in drive, no go. Cable was melted.

What pisses me off is that the cable was at least 2" from the primary header tubes and I had even made stand-offs to make sure it wouldn't touch. :angry7:

Just ordered one a 1' shorter. The loop will have to be somewhat tighter but the cable will be 4"+ away from any exhaust parts.

Next time I get a shifter it'll be the SCS Cheetah shifter. The cable exits toward the engine, wraps around the passenger side of the tranny and enters the rear. No header interference issues.

I Just hope this info helps someone out.
 
Check your chassis ground Joe.... This was a common problem with GM's back in the 70's. Battery ground cable would corrode and cook the shifter cable.
 
70Duster440 said:
I know a lot of people will suggest various insulators. I went with a Thermo-tec sleeve the entire length of the cable. Mine is routed from the shifter down around the front of the bellhousing.

http://store.summitracing.com/partd...400356+4294845355+4294787331+115&autoview=sku
Click to expand...

Great idea! I'll call Summit and see if it's too late to put it on the order. I don't want to pay another 10.95 for shipping if I can help it.

FASTBACK340 said:
Check your chassis ground Joe.... This was a common problem with GM's back in the 70's. Battery ground cable would corrode and cook the shifter cable.
Click to expand...

All cables are new or freshly terminated, and I did the sandpaper thing where I mounted the chassis ground. Great troubleshooting Fastback, I never would have of thought of that! Shouldn't be the problem though but I'll double check.
 
Here you all go!

P1011119.JPG
 
Red,

That's the big question. It's not like I was on some 120mph cruise of the century straight up a mountain for an hour at WFOT. You can even see the one of the rubber insulated stand offs that was bolted to bracket I fabbed and I have new motor mounts too. WTF?

Primary tubes would have to be glowing red for this to happen. I know I'm not lean with 74 primary jets and 80 secondaries and no secondary power valve.Primary power valve is a 6.5. Oh yeah, this is a model 4150 650 double pumper and there is no hesitation whatsoever at an altitude of 5700". Instant response and when I get the "Rap" from the exhaust (see my exaust post) it pulls like a big block above 2000-2500 rpm.

On this 99F day, coolant temp never got above 190. I stopped, put it in park, ran in for a Coke and went to drop in drive. Nothing. That's when I found the cable popped through the sheath.
 
Did you have a really tight bend in it? And was it downstream of a heat source? After running it to operating temp. and then having it sit still and "cook", you might have accidentally compromised the sheathings integrity (translation: it %$#@#$-up).

Or check the ground straps.... :-D
 
Same thing happened with my old slap shifter. It wasn't heat at all, but with the shifting over time at the bend the inner cable just sawed through outer sleve. I think thats how B&M makes extra money....because their replacement cables are way better but $$.
 
FASTBACK340 said:
Did you have a really tight bend in it? And was it downstream of a heat source? After running it to operating temp. and then having it sit still and "cook", you might have accidentally compromised the sheathings integrity (translation: it %$#@#$-up).

Or check the ground straps.... :-D
Click to expand...

No dammit, it wasn't that tight, lol! But yes, it was downstream from the heat source. And yes, %&#@#)*, LOL! It looks bad from the pic but that loop had about a 14" radius for pete's sake. It just freakin' collapsed, but note no steel sheath discoloration. The 1' shorter cable will drop the radius to 12" but it will be 4"+ from any heat source. Fk, this is a freakin' truck, LOL, Whats gonna happen when I put a stroker SB/BB in the '72 duster? I'm guessing that it's just me who had this problem? I wish I had an IR gun or i'd say they're made of wax, lol!
 
redfastback said:
bad cable? did you wrap it with tape and make it work?
Click to expand...

Nope, it happened in the driveway as I got finished with a 2 Mile speedo calibration.

I could have hit the emergency brake, crawled under, pulled the cotter pin and put it in drive while it was running, but the thought of those 33x12.5's rolling over my dumb *** then proceeding through the garage, cinder block or not, was quite disconcerting, lol. :pale:

Here's a pic of orangezilla, make's Christine look like a pussy: BTW, that bumper is 3/8's" thick. The Snap-on stool is there for reference.

P1011120.jpg
 
stormin said:
Try a cable from California Push-Pull, Inc. That make replacment cables for shifters. Given them a call and you will be gald you did.

http://www.push-pull.com/index.html

Aloha
Stormin
Click to expand...

Good tip. I have gone through 3 B&M cables and finally had to install the extra long cable to take a ridiculous route away from headers. I am calling these guys to see if they have something more durable for the quicksilver shifter.
 
I just did exactly what you did with my 3rd cable, got one a foot or two shorter. It made a really tight curve, but seems to shift fine. So far so good. If it doesn't work, I'll be turnin to something else. Just not sure what yet. I"ll have to bookmark this thread with all of the suggestions, just in case.

My last one burned up right in the middle of a cruise. Long story short, I had to push the car off to the side, wait for the exhaust to cool, then crawled under it, shifted it to neutral so I could start it, had a friend step on the brakes while I crawled under it again and shifted into drive. What fun.

- Don
 
stormin said:
Try a cable from California Push-Pull, Inc. That make replacment cables for shifters. Given them a call and you will be gald you did.

http://www.push-pull.com/index.html

Aloha
Stormin
Click to expand...

Thanks Stormin. I already got the B&M replacement on order but if this happens again, I'll look them up.

fwaugh said:
Good tip. I have gone through 3 B&M cables and finally had to install the extra long cable to take a ridiculous route away from headers. I am calling these guys to see if they have something more durable for the quicksilver shifter.
Click to expand...

I had no choice but to go shorter. We'll see how it works out.

la67DartGT said:
I just did exactly what you did with my 3rd cable, got one a foot or two shorter. It made a really tight curve, but seems to shift fine. So far so good. If it doesn't work, I'll be turnin to something else. Just not sure what yet. I"ll have to bookmark this thread with all of the suggestions, just in case.

My last one burned up right in the middle of a cruise. Long story short, I had to push the car off to the side, wait for the exhaust to cool, then crawled under it, shifted it to neutral so I could start it, had a friend step on the brakes while I crawled under it again and shifted into drive. What fun.

- Don
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much sucks when one of these goes out. I'll keep a close eye on it this time around.
 
Got the new cable in and went for a bunch of test drives, including calibrating the electronic speedo. The new cable shifts better than it ever did and I saw no signs of heat damage. I went one foot shorter, 4' vs. the 5' one that came with the shifter. I saw no difference in the quality of the replacement cable vs. the cable that came with the shifter although "race quality" shift cables are availible from B&M.

I hope this helps someone. :)
 
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