Bummed...

bowtie_pasta · August 22, 2003

I must be a dummy. Was putting a new battery in the 97 Blazer tonight after work and dropped my wrench across the two leads. Arc'd like a mother! Ruined the new battery, ruined the negative battery cable, partially ruined the positive battery cable.

I'm so frustrated right now. They will probably make me buy a whole new battery.

MarkD · August 22, 2003

Geez that sucks! The same thing happened to me years ago (to a lesser degree, no permanent damage). Now, I usually leave the plastic caps on the posts until I connect the terminals. Hindsight is 20/20 huh.

SnakeEyeSS · August 22, 2003

My brother's wrench extension rolled to touch both ends once, the battery still worked(well, for a year or two more), but part of the terminals were melted! Scared us, we didn't realized what had happened for a second1

bummed-n-Md · August 22, 2003

I ran the aircraft battery shop at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma Az back in '79.

We had a guy stop by who wanted us to look at the battery in his car out in the parking lot. While taking it out for us, he too dropped a wrench across both terminals . The sparks ignited the hydrogen gas and blew up the battery. He was very lucky that the blast deflected away from him. Acid and schrapnel was all over the engine compartment and fenders. Blew the hood back over the windshield. We all thought a practice bomb went off (they were doing bomb runs that day). I was part of the response team to 'neutralize the spill'.

RULES of THUMB:

1.

When using metal tools around a baterry, always keep one teminal covered with some kind of insulator. Even a shop cloth or rag will help.

2.

Before doing any battery work blow air (even your breadth will do) across the top of the battery. Especially on a hot day. This will help disipate any gas build ups.

3.

NEVER NEVER NEVER spark a battery to see if it still has juice in it. You see a lot of people doing this when they try to give someone a jump. You are just waiting for to blow somthing up and it just might be you. I've seen quite a number of batteries where this has happened and a few of the people it happend to. It ain't pretty.

bummed.

tmf6902 · August 22, 2003

ok.....I'm NEVER going to touch my battery again.....and they want to puy hydogen fuel cells in cars......HA

bummed-n-Md · August 22, 2003

ya think maybe I was a little to aggressive in my use of NEVER?

the newer maintenance free batteries are not as bad as the older type where you had access to individual cells. In the older type, the vent caps were known to not relieve pressure properly all time thus setting up the potential for an 'incident'.

I too question Hydrogen in passenger vehicles. just imagine a fuel cell rupture during an accident. It would be a whole lot worse that a gas spill.

bowtie_pasta · August 22, 2003

Guys, I was literally 2 minutes away from being finished. I had already tightened the positive lead down and was working on the negative lead, it was only a couple threads in when the wrench slipped and crossed both leads. Everything happened so d**n fast, I was like "oh sh*t, oh sh*t, oh sh*t!!!"

You should see the wrench, both ends burnt like someone took an arc welder to it!

What's bugging me right now is I want to get this thing fixed, but my wife's at work with the other truck and I'm at home taking care of my kid. After she gets home I'm gonna have to go to work so I probably won't get to work on it until tomorrow.

One thing's for sure, this will NEVER happen again!

bummed-n-Md · August 22, 2003

I'm just glad to hear that no one got injured,

but then again, that may change though when "she who must be obeyed" gets home....

Seriously, batteries and wrenches are replacable, you are not.

MCourson · August 22, 2003

We had a wrech fall and land on the battery of one of our self contained kart starters. Luckily it bounced off. It did leave a nice little mark on the wrench though.

bowtie_pasta · August 22, 2003

Well I got it repaired guys.

Pep Boys was kind enough to give me a free replacement, with manager approval of course. Thank you Pep Boys!!!

I was able to replace both lugs and reinstalled the negative cable. All is well and she's purrin' like a kitten again.

Thanks for the support peeps!

greyghost03 · August 22, 2003

Glad to see Pep Boys did ya good and even more glad to see nothing happened to you in the "incident"!

I know, after reading this thread, I will most def be extra careful the next time I have to mess with a battery! You never know when one of them could just blow!

bowtie_pasta · August 22, 2003

I'm gonna stop foolin' around and get my picture hosting up and running, if I do I'll try to get some pictures of the wrench up.

timk49 · August 23, 2003

I too question Hydrogen in passenger vehicles. just imagine a fuel cell rupture during an accident. It would be a whole lot worse that a gas spill.

I have some stock in a company named Energy Visions Inc. They have developed a fuel cell that uses methanol as a fuel. I thing that is safer and easier to distribute the general public. Some day one of the big manufacturers are going to gobble this little company up ... it's a cheep stock but if that happens I may finally make some money.

MCourson · August 23, 2003

I too question Hydrogen in passenger vehicles. just imagine a fuel cell rupture during an accident. It would be a whole lot worse that a gas spill.

I have some stock in a company named Energy Visions Inc. They have developed a fuel cell that uses methanol as a fuel. I thing that is safer and easier to distribute the general public. Some day one of the big manufacturers are going to gobble this little company up ... it's a cheep stock but if that happens I may finally make some money.

We run methanol in the race karts here. The only problem I see with it now is that it cost $3 a gallon.