Fire Risk Warning - Had a bad experience

[James W]

My Injector pump decided to go duff leaking significantly recently.. leaving puddles and visible dripping... not good timing to be spending $ as my employer got me down to 3 days of employment left... then extended it for a bit... will be unemployed soon I think, but that is another story.

The leak wasn't so much a problem itself but I parked it in the garage to start stripping it down for repairs the next day.... about 4am I heard a starter motor running... is was the MU in the garage.. after finding pants and keys etc I got into the garage to find it winding over and a significant orange glow underneath in the dark... it was on fire!!! .
I got a battery lead off and let off a fire extinguisher and got it out easy enough. My best guess is the Diesel leaking, or me degreasing and washing it down got into a weak part of the live heavy starter motor cable from the battery running along the side of the sump under the injector pump along with the starter solenoid wire. On my MU the solenoid wire runs along the live un-fused starter motor cable... not the best idea ever.

So for the benefit of others to learn from this please;

1) Check the integrity of the live starter wire, it's brackets, mounts and insulation hiding inside the plastic conduit
2) Check the location and integrity of the solenoid wire
3) Be wary of diesel leaks and or degreasing in this area
4) If in doubt disconnect a battery lead

I thought I would share hoping that it might prevent others from the same problem... I could have lost the MU, garage and more.

Happy 4wd'ing all

[bozza72]

Thank mate, sounds like you had a really close call.

[mulover]

Lucky you heard it, could have been very bad.

[geeves]

thats horrible
One question though Diesel is not a conductor? It could though of rotted the plastic which then touches something