Hi all,
Just a story, about my fooling around with cars…
Remember about my leaking power steering pressure hose?
It was leaking and spraying fluid straight on the
exhaust manifold, which set the valve cover gasket kit on fire (which a
previous owner used for the valve covers, instead of the correct cork gaskets,
not me!).
Happily I always carry a fresh fire extinguisher, so
I was able to extinguish it easily. Trained fire fighter as I am…
So, while this car is disabled until I receive the
new pressure hose from Atlas, I woke up the other one from it’s winter
sleep, for driving a good friend’s good friend’s wedding
anniversary, last night.
Although I have two Dodges and greedy as I am, I have
only one battery, since I reasoned I can only drive one at a time.
That battery was on a loader while I was cleaning and
polishing the car, which always takes longer then one thinks..
So, finally I had to hurry getting a shower and
getting dressed, to be there in time. Left the battery on the loader until
after showering and dressing.
Right before I left, I placed the battery in the car,
but didn’t use the battery mounting rack, since it was still in the other
car, away in storage.
Used a simple steel batter hook. With 6 point nuts,
instead of the usual wing nuts. Only finger tightened them, as I was in a hurry.
That’s where it went wrong.
Well, you can guess it from here, right?
While driving, I noticed the hidden CD player went
out every so now and then, when accelerating, braking or manoeuvring over a speed
bump. Didn’t do that before.
Happily, the wedding anniversary went fine. Eexcept
for all the rice the threw in my car, when carefully driving through a human honour
hedge (not correct English I guess..). BTW: recognisable but funny how they
misjudged the size of my car, they had to stretch to be able to still hold
their flower decorated bows.
But when I drove home alone and stopping at a traffic
light, I was tempted to show off (wonder why that always happens to me…).
So I did. No problem. I showed them young ones how funny their light weight GTI’s
are. A lot of tire spinning but they don’t seem to get any (front)
traction soon.
But okay, after that the music went down and I
started to smell a light burning insulation aroma. Not too bad, figured it
could be the external amplifier. I just arrived where I had to be and parked my
car. Still nothing happening. And too many people admiring to go under the hood
for a closer inspection. As opposed to in the US, here in The Netherlands mostly
nobody asks you to open up the hood.
After a 20 minutes visit, when I came back and tried
to start up, it was completely dead. Nothing. Except for suddenly big piles of
smoke coming out from under the hood. Wow, not again?!?
Opening up the hood showed the mass terminal battery
cable on fire, plus some surroundings.
My battery wasn’t secured properly and moved
around while driving. The + terminal finally made contact with the loose steel battery
hook.
The battery hook was glowing red (1/2 inch thick!) and
melted. The insulation on the mass terminal cable was on fire.
Carefully pulled the battery loose from the shorting
and extinguished the fire. Pfff, got lucky again…. Especially because
after cooling down, there was enough juice left in that battery to get my car
started. And nothing seemed to be broken. It drove like before. Only a few
miles to my home, with a loose battery, which I did driving slowly and
carefully.
Why it happened when I started, I still don’t
understand. Because it didn’t move since it was parked.
Why didn’t it happen before, when I was
driving, or right after I parked?
Why was the mass terminal cable on fire, while the +
terminal had a straight shortage to the chassis?
Jim in The Netherlands
’57 Dodge D-500 x2, still !!!
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network