What have you fried recently??

[IvelDesigns]

Tonight I was working on the '50 and made a rookie mistake that's gonna set me back a few hundred bucks...

I wanted to get the starter kicked over so that i'd know if it was mating correctly, so i got the battery out, hooked up the + to the starter, and... here's the mistake... grounded to the frame. when i jumped the starter posts, it engaged, but didn't seem like it was working right. Made a call to Bob68327 for some "tech support" and about half way through the call i noticed smoke coming from the top of the motor. after a "oh chit!" i jumped to undo the battery (while dropping my phone) and got it unhooked.

At first i thought the wiring harness was toast since smoke was coming from both the engine and from under the dash. none of the wires under the dash felt hot though. Then i looked at my engine to see my new lokar throttle cable smokin'. It was fried. so much so that it split when i tried to wiggle it free.

So that's all that fried... or so i thought....

15 or 20 min later i was on the phone with my brother talking about my F-up and i realized the front wheels wouldn't turn side to side when i pushed on the tire with my leg (whole truck is on jack stands). Then i grabbed the steering wheel. nothing, nadda, nu-uh. tugged a little more then i hear snap, crackle, pop!

Unfortunately none of my kids were behind me eating Rice Krispies. That was the guts of my new ididit column crunching as i turned the wheel. Not only did i now have about 1/4 turn of slop, but the steering shaft would move in and out of the column about 3/4".

So, 30 min of pulling the junk stuff out, and a quick call to Justin at Scott's Hot Rods and it's all history. New column should be here mid next week.

Basically what happened was, since i grounded to the frame, and did not have a ground strap to the block, it used the throttle cable and the steering column to find ground.



I just hope nothing else got fried in the process.

uhg...

[red71c10]

Holy Crap!!! I don't know what to tell you except, well...Holy Crap!!!

[hvychve]

current has its mysterious ways of path , huh, can never have enough grounds, but telling you this now is sorta a slap in the face, not its intent, I would guess everyone on here that has worked on cars long enough has done a costly mistake atleast once, wont happen again,
Just for the record, I was doing a job on a late model capri, dash work to be exact, I was using a 1/4 inch air ratchet to remove bolts from defroster vent area and the screws got longer and wedged the ratchet between the dash and the window, needles to say it was a heads up display window, You know the one that displays the speedometer and such on the windshield for those lazy drivers who dont have the energy to look down at normal range to see there speed, needless to say, it cost me some beer money, around $800 bucks, hope this eases the pain a bit, i could go on and on, but really dont want to sound like a total screw up, we all have been there, buy new parts and be careful the next go round, add extra grounds, never can have too many.........

[special-K]

I`ve fried oysters.They`re about out of season for the year nd had to have`em one more time.It`s steamin`time,now...crabs!!(and radiators)

[cdowns]

an expensive lesson learned// it's the single most commonly neglected thing in about every vehicle build PROPER GROUNDING causes things electrical to work properly

[oldblue1968chevy]

other day i was swapping out alternators, and still had the pos. batt termindal hooked up!! well burnt some wirees and an alternator..i feel your paint bro.

[brad_man_72]

i made a 3 piece sbc crank.

[oldblue1968chevy]

oh and i fried a old pioneer radio lol

[Sinister]

Ouch, sorry to hear that. The little things will get you sometimes.

[Skirkpat]

Well I had a bad day yesterday also, I was rebuilding my air compresser pump( bent the crank moving it when a strap broke and the beltwheel hit the ground). It is a two cylinder Ingersoll Rand T-30, I almost had the new crank in and the rods bolted back together, and one of the pistons popped out the bottom of the bore. It has a taper that is supposed to squeze them back in, but I got in a hurry and hammerfisted it back in....Now I get to buy new COMPLETE set of rings, head gasket, and maybe a piston...Yeah, and I still don't get to use my compressor

[lurch115]

so i have to ask....

i know the old rule that if you let the smoke out of wires they don't work anymore, but are you saying we need to add that if you let the smoke out of the throttle linkage that it also will not work anymore??

don't feel bad man, we've all made our share of mistakes similar to that.

the one i can think of that i did was not retorquing an aluminum rim again after driving 50 miles of mounting it.... cost me a rim, brand new tire, and alot of cussin' as i was on the side of a gravel road trying to beat the brake drum back on over bent studs...

[68C15]

20 years ago I was working at a local trucking company as a lube tech/trainee. i drained the oil, changed the filters and went to lunch. while I was enjoying my Pizza Hut dinner the driver came in to get his truck and head out on his haul. he made it 2 miles before the engine let loose. now if I leave a vehicle without oil in it I either take the keys or place the dipstick through the key ring and lay it all in plain sight.

[Dieselwrencher]

That sucks Levi. Sorry to hear that. I had a good one this winter too. I went to look at an 84 ford diesel truck and I was putting batteries in it so I could try to start it. I had the LH battery in and hooked up and was hooking up the RH battery. As I hooked the positive cable up I melted the post to the battery right off. That is what I get for getting a hurry. I had the battery in the tray backwards and my positive cable just touched the negative terminal but had another battery's power behind it. Oops. That woke me up a little, and warmed me up a bit too.

[hchad18]

Chicken? knock on wood.

[70C10Toejam]

Oh Levi...Levi...Levi

Not sure the last time I've fried something, at least like that. Sure I have at work, just can't think of it right now.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That sucks Levi. Sorry to hear that. I had a good one this winter too. I went to look at an 84 ford diesel truck and I was putting batteries in it so I could try to start it. I had the LH battery in and hooked up and was hooking up the RH battery. As I hooked the positive cable up I melted the post to the battery right off. That is what I get for getting a hurry. I had the battery in the tray backwards and my positive cable just touched the negative terminal but had another battery's power behind it. Oops. That woke me up a little, and warmed me up a bit too.

that sounds similar to how I've aquired my last 2 batteries for my '70. On the assembly line of a local implement manufacturer once in a while the guys would hook up a battery backwards. Even the smallest "defect" (in this case a very small arc spot on one of the terminals) and they won't use it. "You spend $200k on a piece of equipment and you expect everything to be perfect". They used the same battery in the propane forklifts, but if there were too many to be useful, they were scrapped. Thus how it ended up in my truck. Now you couldn't pay me to take one of these batteries, but I'm all about free. (taking money would be endorsing, and this company can't build a consumer battery to save their life. These OEM ones, I really can't say for sure, but this one is 2 years old and starting to go.)


Oh, yeah...I burned a control in a used charger a few weeks ago. Thought it was set for 480...............nope, only 240. Control transformers are not too fond of that. Those retrofit controls were junk anyway.