Shirehorse
Member
- 169
- 23
- 18
- Location
- Mantua, OH
Morning, kids!
So, I had a first for me this past week.
While working on installing a battery equalizer in my battery box, a series of unfortunate events caused the lid to come off of its prop rod and fall. This resulted in the metal data plate for the batteries coming into contact with the positive post on the 24v side of my two 8D batteries. My master battery disconnect was engaged at the time, but the truck was off, and the battery switch was off as well.
In about four seconds, the batteries completely vaporized the body ground strap, and completely FUBAR'd the Cole-Hersee master switch I had wired in. No damage to any other electrical components, thankfully. Both batteries tested fine under load, and appear to not have been damaged.
Upon further investigation, while troubleshooting the vaporized ground strap (literally nothing left but the ringlets on each side) I found that a lovely army mechanic hooked the forward ground strap up frame to frame, so I set out to remedy this while I replaced the other.
I made some 2/0 battery cables with 3/8 eyelets, save for one 1/2 eyelet to go on the starter negative post. I routed them in the path of the original ground straps, including the ground look on the bottom of the IP/air compressor to frame. This ground was routed incorrectly on my truck, originally. Everything now chooches as it should.
One note about troubleshooting grounds: when you suspect a body/frame/engine ground problem, use a set of jumper cables to troubleshoot. It makes life a lot easier than using tiny alligator clips!
I then performed an additional hilbilly MWO on the bottom of the battery box lid, to prevent the same thing from happening in the future. I have rubber terminal covers on my batteries, as well as foam on top, but these were removed for service.
I can only imagine the amount of amperage that must have been present to nuke a 1" ground strap.
So, I had a first for me this past week.
While working on installing a battery equalizer in my battery box, a series of unfortunate events caused the lid to come off of its prop rod and fall. This resulted in the metal data plate for the batteries coming into contact with the positive post on the 24v side of my two 8D batteries. My master battery disconnect was engaged at the time, but the truck was off, and the battery switch was off as well.
In about four seconds, the batteries completely vaporized the body ground strap, and completely FUBAR'd the Cole-Hersee master switch I had wired in. No damage to any other electrical components, thankfully. Both batteries tested fine under load, and appear to not have been damaged.
Upon further investigation, while troubleshooting the vaporized ground strap (literally nothing left but the ringlets on each side) I found that a lovely army mechanic hooked the forward ground strap up frame to frame, so I set out to remedy this while I replaced the other.
I made some 2/0 battery cables with 3/8 eyelets, save for one 1/2 eyelet to go on the starter negative post. I routed them in the path of the original ground straps, including the ground look on the bottom of the IP/air compressor to frame. This ground was routed incorrectly on my truck, originally. Everything now chooches as it should.
One note about troubleshooting grounds: when you suspect a body/frame/engine ground problem, use a set of jumper cables to troubleshoot. It makes life a lot easier than using tiny alligator clips!
I then performed an additional hilbilly MWO on the bottom of the battery box lid, to prevent the same thing from happening in the future. I have rubber terminal covers on my batteries, as well as foam on top, but these were removed for service.
I can only imagine the amount of amperage that must have been present to nuke a 1" ground strap.
