Stuart+Electricity=Oops

stuart_hedges · Post by **stuart_hedges** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:22 am

Got round to fitting my stereo last night. I've done this loads of times - easy job.

Found all the relevant wires, hooked everything up, discovered that the existing speakers were crap so fitted my own JBL's, tested everything again and went to finally fit the stereo into the dash.

There was a bit of extra spaghetti in there; I guess I should have tested it to see what it was but I just assumed they'd be dead - wiring from an amp that had been removed or something.

Slid the stereo into the dash.

Zzzt. Burning smell.

Dead stereo.

Stewart (oily!) · Post by **Stewart (oily!)** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 12:08 pm

You accidentally let the smoke out

all electrical devices are powered by smoke, once you let it out

been there done that.
Stewart

mnde · Post by **mnde** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 3:22 pm

Oh dear Stu.... I trust you unhooked the battery first? I used to find it was rather easy to blow a fuse while fiddling around with the radio in the GSA. I think I did the same with my old Meteor. Commiserations!

Mark + Electricity=Oops also

I got the shock of my life recently when trying to jump start a Renault Clio with jump leads using my BX. What I didn't realise was that unlike the BX, the Clio's *positive* terminal on the battery was the one nearest to the bulkhead........

Who got loads of sparks and a shower of melted lead?

Ahem.

Mark.

DavidRutherford · Post by **DavidRutherford** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 3:45 pm

mnde wrote: Who got loads of sparks and a shower of melted lead?

Ahem.

A mistake you only make once isn't it.

A friend made a similar mistake a while back. We were jump-starting a 6-litre perkins diesel (in a 5-tonne dumper truck) with a Land-Rover (thus lots of amps flying around, and some very thick jumper cables.)

Once the dumper truck was started, he made the mistake of removing both clamps from the dumper-truck battery without disconnecting either from the landrover. He then places both clamps in one hand so that he has a hand free to close the battery cover.

BIG sparky-flashes. Ever seen someone juggle with jumper-cable clamps, with a small lightening storm going on?

Laugh? I nearly stalled the dumper truck.

stuart_hedges · Post by **stuart_hedges** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 3:55 pm

mnde wrote:I trust you unhooked the battery first?

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:13 pm

Stewart (oily!) wrote:You accidentally let the smoke out all electrical devices are powered by smoke, once you let it out been there done that.
Stewart

tom · Post by **tom** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:49 pm

It can happen to the best of us. I torched the front wiring loom on a mate's Yugo (And before the idiot fringe starts, that was a Fiat 128, indisputably the best small car of its time) with a spanner between alternator and earth

I had a new loom in the following morning but the smell hung around for a bit!

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 1:48 pm

Another story of woe - I fried the alternator, rev counter, fuel gauge and melted the insulation on the main charging lead whilst jump starting my wife's 205, which then caused us to be late for a funeral...

The reason was that the battery terminals on the donor vehicle had a red cap on the negative terminal, and a black one on the positive

adamskibx · Post by **adamskibx** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 4:45 pm

I had a battery incident the other day, with my dads car. He has one of those batteries encased in plastic that charges up and can be used to start cars with dead batteries. So, positive lead on the battery, negative on the chassis. The machine beeped at me as soon as I connected it, and then I turned i to the on position, more beeping, and oh sh*t, loads of smoke from the lead on the chassis, remove immediately, and oh, it looks like someones tried to savatage the chassis with a welder

Luckily it didnt do anything to the electrics as what id done is connect the positive to the negative, and the negative to the chassis, which is also the negative, so it could have been a lot worse.