Left on a high... came home on a stretcher in convertible weather
 

Soooo... shaking down the '67 a few miles at a time. It was the maker's perfect day, 72 and sunny, dropped the roof to go run some errands in the GTO.

Headed out to the weld shop next ot Gingerman Raceway, only to find it closed. Car was running beautifully. Had to do some backing and filling to get turned around and felt a... tug on the wheel.... like the pump had conked out.

Got turned around heading for the barn and it starts missing. Runs, misses a beat comes right back. Misses again. Hmmmmm this aint good.

Pull up to the light at the big intersection by the freeway - out goes the power - and the dash lights up like the cockpit in Flight". Get it off the road and pop the hood. Wiggle the positive cable, inside the pass thru tube under the driver side manifold starts glowing and sparking. Yanked power and let it cool.

As pic shows, the large red and regular size black wire that share the run with the + cable were somehow caught by the steering shaft. That was the wheel tug. Hanging by strands until they weren't.

Good news, Hagerty sent a very good rollback with a car guy driving, landed straight into the garage (only a few miles away) like nothing happened.

Question for anyone still reading: Which wires share that steel tube pass thru to the starter?

Will be digging in to see (and patch) the wires with like color, size and guage. But, was the hot wire from the battery originally red or black?

Moral of story - it's always something with these old heaps. But the world literally drops what they are doing to help. I didn't get the names, but everyone who saw what happened wanted to help.

Thanks in advance for tech and any other advice.

I thought that only the cable goes through the tube - the smaller wires run under the exhaust...

Maybe I'm wrong.

I'm glad you had no issue with the tow, and that you were only running errands :)

This:

Thanks for digging that out . About what I suspected.

Off to the auto parts store!

I thought that only the positive ran through the tube.

Going to South Haven this afternoon, maybe I'll see you.

If you're running a resistance wire to your distributor, take a look at it. When the same thing happened to me 50 years ago, mine got cooked. Your tube is probably melted also. I now route mine by the motor mount like the ram air engines. Also pay close attention to how the cables are clocked when tightened to the solenoid so that they are away from your exhaust.
When mine shorted it was night time at a gas station. I had left it in gear, so when the short occurred it start rolling away from me while I was gassing it up. I dropped the nozzle and reached in to knock it out of gear. When I opened the hood (still slowly cranking) the cable was glowing.

Many years ago I changed the engine in my 1965 GTO and never put the tube for the wires back. 35 miles from home the positive battery cable melted to the exhaust manifold. I managed to pull it loose before it completely melted through the copper. I wedged something between the wire and manifold and got home. After that I knew what the tube was for.

I have a Ford solenoid mounted on my inner fender.

The cable going through the tube shield is only hot when I’m starting the engine, not all the time like factory.

I made up all the battery cables using 2/0 welding cable. The cable and lugs are so big I had to put the shield tube over the cable before putting the ring lugs on.

I made a copper buss to connect the solenoid to the starter positive lug so when the key switch powers the cable the solenoid is activated.

I did the same thing as b-man. I ran the starter wire in front of the exhaust manifold and under the motor mount with a tube mounted to the motor mount bolt. I like having the starter wire cold until the starter is activated. I have a 4 speed so I can push start it if the wire somehow gets shorted.

Be sure to use a thermal sleeve or thermal wrap tape to protect the wires from rubbing against the hot metal of the tube.

Is the thermal insulation ‘sleeve’ available as a reproduction or straight from GM? I was surveying ‘66-7s at the Motor City POCI show today and saw a few cars with new-looking sleeve protecting the harness. Have thermal tape coming from Summit, but would prefer original.

Starter Cables
 

Great upgrade.

Summit and Jegs have the sleeve as well. IIRC, I got mine from AMES years ago when I replaced the engine wiring harness.

Post Script - the sleeve is on the cable in the bag, I just needed to look at it more closely.