Oh great. Something to worry about. Maybe I'll just dig out my Roadside
assistance card and sit around and wait for them.




"Corky Scott" > wrote in message
news
> On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:26:31 GMT, y_p_w > wrote:
>
> >Specifically, the order I recall is dead battery positive to good
> >battery positive. Then good battery negative to ground AWAY from
> >the battery; ground is any metal part at least 8 inches from the
> >dead battery. The idea is that a spark when the circuit is
> >completed could potentially ignite any flammable gasses coming
> >from the battery.
>
> I've seen this (battery blowing up) happen twice. Both times it was
> Winter and the battery had frozen because of a charging problem. A
> third time I saw a battery blow it's cell covers off (they weren't
> really installed, just laying on the battery) because of an
> inadvertant spark while the battery was being heavily charged.
>
> In the case of the first frozen battery, no spark occured near the
> battery, all connections had been made and the owner was attempting to
> start the car. The battery just blew apart. It was morning after the
> guy had driven up to the ski resort where I was working and it had
> gotten really cold that night. His battery just managed to get him
> into the dooryard. He parked it overnight, intending to deal with the
> dead battery the next morning... instead it dealt with him.
>
> The second frozen battery was being charged after the car had been
> towed to the shop because the battery was dead. The mechanic working
> on it was leaning into the engine compartment when the battery
> exploded like a grenade. He was only nicked on his forehead. He was
> very very lucky guy because pieces of the battery scattered across the
> entire 8 bay shop.
>
> I've had bad luck trying to make a good ground connection on the dead
> car away from the battery and getting a good enough connection to make
> things happen. There always seems to be too much resistance to get
> the engine spinning fast enough to run.
>
> Switching the negative clamp directly to the battery's negative post
> usually does the trick, but due to my experences with exploding
> batteries, I'm always either REALLY shielding my face when I do this,
> or removing the battery cell caps (if it has them) to prevent an
> explosion in a closed container. On the other hand this virtually
> guarantees that there will be explosive gas floating around unless you
> drape a cloth across the battery. Working around charging batteries
> still makes me nervous, 22 years after I stopped being an auto
> mechanic.
>
> Corky Scott
>