This DODGE was almost HISTORY. The alternator shorted out and burned the wiring harness all the way back to the DASH. I made a new harness. This car was 100% restored by us but the owner did the wiring. This is a prime example of fusing and fuse links. When building a car always remember to include FUSE LINKS on the alt and main junction feeds. The rule of thumb is 2 wire sizes lower than the wire gauge you are protecting. Example a #10 Should be protected with a #14 LINK.
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/tfalconier/8bc0737f.jpg)
Notice the AMP gauge wiring. It lit up like a Christmas Tree and burned the underhood and dash wiring extensively.
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/tfalconier/9d734bae.jpg)
I can't agree more. I had a ground issue a while back after an exhaust fabricator worked on my car. Luckily my fusible link did it's job. Burned out and saved the car. Found the ground that had been left disconnected and put it back. Put in a new link and was back in business.
Yikes! that looks like a lot of work for something so easily and cheaply preventable.
You got it GUYS!!! A simple Fuse link would have prevented this. We always use Maxi Fuses or links. Totally a must to protect your pride and JOY. Thanks Tom
What is the proper way to prevent damage from the welding??
In the shop we disconnect the battery before any welding. Some shops we talked to dont do this and they say it is a waste of time. But i personally am not going to take the chance. We always disconnect the battery before welding on a CAR.
It's better to disconnect the ground on the battery than not. Why take a chance for something so simple to do.
Exactly . That is the safe way to do it. Shops complain that they have to reset things in the car after disconnecting the battery. But i would rather be safe than sorry.
I heard one story from one local VW dealer shop. Someone forgot to disconnect the battery and they let the key in ON or ACC position (nobody knows why) and when they started with welding, all air bags blowed off. Unfortunatelly, the car had 8 or 10 air bags, so they were screwed :-D
In our cars the welding shouldn't do any problem, but new cars don't like it...
Having had 2 Fords in flames, I disconnect the POS cable for anything more than oil changes and fuel fillups.
Seems like it's worked since then, so I reckon I'll keep to it. :)
negative pole is better in cars with negative ground. you cannot short the battery when you are (dis)connecting the cable with a wrench and you accidentally hit the grounded body part.
I only hate disconnecting my battery cables cause then I have to reset all my radio presets! :hick:
Actually i went to a seminar about AIR BAG deployment. They warned us about the sequence of battery disconnecting. We saw videos ETC. They claim and i am not going to dispute them. Proper procedure is when disconnecting battery cables is neg first. Connecting battery is negative last. They claim if not dun this way you can deploy an air bag. They showed us video of deployment if not dun correctly.
Is it even possible to deploy air bags without key in the ignition???
100% on this the system has a power supply that has app 10 minutes or so of power with the key off. We were also warned about that. Thanks for filling this in. You are spot on and 100% on that. Thank you
if the battery pos cable sparks when your terminating/unterminating then your doing things backwards.
when jump starting a failed car, hook your car up first then hook up the bad car, that way all the possible sparks are on thier end, not yours.
and hooking up jumper cables, follow the same rules as hooking / unhooking a battery.
I've never had any issue hook uo or disconnecting the battery in a car, unless you do it backwards. I once hooked a tricle charger up backwards on a dead battery, it reversed poles, but didn't have enough juce to crank over.
Hooking up the wires wrong on the battery in the car, I fused some bad fuseable links. Replaced them from a junkyard car, started right up.
And for anyone that's never been in a wreck, seen one, or seen the aftermath, then go to youtube, type in "idiots with airbags" or something along those lines, and see for yourself what happens when they...umm, detonate.
And also, if you're driving or riding in a vehicle with front bags, sit the hell back in the seat. Busted noses hurt like a bitch.
/experience.
You have it backwards!!! The dead battery is gassing not the good one. Always hook up the dead car first!! And never hook the cables to the battery directly if possible. Always hook the ground to the block to keep sparks away from the dead battery as well as the good one
REMEMBER THE DEAD BATTERY IS GASSING AND ALWAYS GET HOOKED UP FIRST!!!
your backwards Tom but it really doesnt matter if "gassing" is the safety precaution your pointing to.
Your term "Gassing" is in effect sorta impossible because there is no rectifier charging the load. H2 is produced under charge conditions 99.9% of the time. You dont have hydrogen discharge from a battery that is "not" in thermal runaway.
I only say hook up to the dead car second because you want the impedence of the jumper cables to help protect your car/battery from any malfunctions that might be on thier car and as well, on thier electronics if a spark were to happen when hooking up the cables. essentially "I" would want the spark to happen on thier car and it should occure on the ground cable. I hook up my cables, then walk over and hook up the pos first then the ground on thier car.\
if someons car is not able to crank and the battery is making noise and is bulged on teh sides, im pretty sure most of us wont jump it.
a battery with sulfization causing cells to have physical continuity to neighboring plates other than the electrolyte is a matter of many factors.. this can be bandaided with a quick blast of 120vac across the Pos and Neg terminal to blow out the hairs of deposits that are causing the internal short circuit condition.
batteries will have reduced storage capacity due to deposits that physically end up touching cell to cell and plate to plate , not a big issue with VLRA batteries but in flooded cells it is common.
if someone hooks up jumper cables to a car with a battery making noise and its warm ect, let em blow themselves up, serves em right for being an idiot, jumper cables are typically 10' or less anyway so your probably gonna eat the dirt either way due to the length of your cables "GAS" or "No H2"