Good eye, and most likely why the line broke. Look at where the battery is sitting (right up against the broken AC line). And since the terminal cover is not fully on the postive terminal, which is wedged under the insulation of the other AC line... I am gonna venture to guess it tore that foam and the positive terminal was shorting against that line, causing your flickering gauge lights and loss of power.

Check your battery tie down kids I have tech'd a LOT of autocross cars and that is probably 90% of the failures because people never think about it.

 

I'm wondering if that AC line wasn't dented or crimped (damaged) in that area which eventually caused it to fail.

-- Chuck

 

Good detective work! This is what happened. The A/C line may have saved the battery from ripping its wiring off and hitting the engine. Which prolly would have caused a lot more damage.