copacetickid Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 HYPOTHETICALLY SPEAKING, what would happen if you accidentally put the battery in upside-down and connected the leads then saw smoke rise from the positive terminal lead's small connector, THEN proceeded to turn the ignition switch and nothing happens? Where would one hypothetically start looking to repair this, assuming that none of the 6 underdash fuses were blown? shit. Quote Link to comment
72 327 Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 Do you mean Pos to neg and neg to pos when the smoke started. Or do you mean that you turned the battery upsidedown and let acid pour out. Quote Link to comment
72 327 Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 HYPOTHETICALLY SPEAKING. The wire that in which you speak of I believe goes to the fuse box. From doing the neg to pos thing myself a long time ago. Any thing IC (intergrated chip) is more than likely fried. Like a tach, radio, maybe even the coil, if you have pointless ignition that maybe gone too. Best case is the fuse box wire took all the shorting out. Check to see if you have power going to the fusebox, if so check to see if you have power going to the ignition switch....ect. Quote Link to comment
INDY510 Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 SH!T. I hope it is hypothetical, because how would this even be possible? Did you inhale that smoke???:blink: Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 He did it!!!!!!!! another datsun on the market for 100$ Quote Link to comment
Bleach Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 well first of all, putting the battery in upside down would short the terminals to each other when they hit the metal battery tray. You would have immediatly seen sparks fly. Fusable links are likely blown. Your coil could be bad as well as your alternator. First thing to do is unplug both cables from the battery. the genious employees at Maaco did this to my 280ZX years ago after painting it. (and probably taking it for a joy ride and leaving the door open to kill the battery or something) They cross terminals with their jumper battery. It fried the fusable links and messed up one of the relays. I think I was lucky that is all that happened. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 The alternator may be pooched as well as one or more fusable links. Was the radio on????? Hypothetically???? Quote Link to comment
]2eDeYe Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 I'd say hypothetically...Your Fawked... Upside down?? Any pic's :D Quote Link to comment
datsunaholic Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 I'm trying to figure out how the heck you connect the leads with the battery upside-down. Unless the battery box was rusted away and you bolted them on through the underside. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 HYPOTHETICALLY SPEAKING, what would happen if you accidentally put the battery in upside-down and connected the leads then saw smoke rise from the positive terminal lead's small connector, THEN proceeded to turn the ignition switch and nothing happens? Where would one hypothetically start looking to repair this, assuming that none of the 6 underdash fuses were blown? shit. He probably means front to back, but even so the two terminals are different size. Not impossible to bolt up but (usually) enough to make you wonder WTF. Quote Link to comment
hang_510 Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 He probably means front to back... ..or back to front :P :eek: reversed polarity = if smoke was all you saw, hypothetically, you could be lucky and all you did was short out the battery, before you tried to turn the ignition. a new battery, properly installed, and then you can really find out how much else is toast. Quote Link to comment
72 327 Posted October 31, 2007 Report Share Posted October 31, 2007 I dont think this guy is coming back. I think his truck is on Craig's list allready. HEHE. I forgot about the fusable links since my truck no longer has any of these. Really for somebody that is good in wiring this should be a very very easy fix. Im not counting on this guy because he is the one that could not figure out positive and negitive on his battery. Quote Link to comment
dat521gatherer Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 you mean ass backwards.:eek: Quote Link to comment
copacetickid Posted November 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 Ouch, that hurts 327... Ok so it's not hypothetical, and when I said upside-down, i meant rotated 180 degrees. The battery was out of the truck and I was in a hurry to test something else :(. I hooked the negative cable to the positive terminal first and it fit a little loose, but i didn't think anything of it because I had to loosen it to get it off anyway. i only touched the positive cable to the negative terminal for a second because it didn't fit. It smoked from behind the battery, and the only thing i could find that could have smoked is one of the quick connect terminals that comes off of the secondary (smaller) positive battery cable. When I hooked it up correctly, nothing happens. I've been at work all day, but I'm going to start checking now. Are there other fusable links besides the one that comes right off the positive battery cable? Are there any other fuses in the whole truck than the six under the dash? Btw, the fusable link in my truck is a wire... it will have a fuse on it after this though. Quote Link to comment
72 327 Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 Not to be harsh, I have been there before. Now I work on electronic equipment everyday. I assumed you had bolted and where not coming back because of embrassment. SORRY I would suggest checking the voltage at the battery first make sure the battery didnt short out inside. If you have voltage there check at the fuse box. Then at one side of all the fuses. This will help you elminate areas that are bad. Also you may want to check to see if you have voltage at the starter where the positive lead goes from the battery to the starter. Check ground to battery also. Its been a few times I have had a bad ground or a bad connection on the terminals that has caused a problem. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 Ouch, that hurts 327... Ok so it's not hypothetical, and when I said upside-down, i meant rotated 180 degrees. The battery was out of the truck and I was in a hurry to test something else :(. I hooked the negative cable to the positive terminal first and it fit a little loose, but i didn't think anything of it because I had to loosen it to get it off anyway. i only touched the positive cable to the negative terminal for a second because it didn't fit. It smoked from behind the battery, and the only thing i could find that could have smoked is one of the quick connect terminals that comes off of the secondary (smaller) positive battery cable. When I hooked it up correctly, nothing happens. I've been at work all day, but I'm going to start checking now. Are there other fusable links besides the one that comes right off the positive battery cable? Are there any other fuses in the whole truck than the six under the dash? Btw, the fusable link in my truck is a wire... it will have a fuse on it after this though. As far as the battery, reversing the wires for a second won't hurt it. In normal operation the starter draws hundreds of amps every time you turn the key no big deal. The purpose of the fusible link is to act just like a fuse, but usually under some extreme short to ground like in an accident. Almost all wiring circuits have their own fuse protection in the fuse box, but the wire to the fuse box is unprotected except by this fusible link. It's there for a very good reason and should not be removed or circumvented. With luck the fusible link did it's job and broke the connection and saved the rest of the wiring. Just replace, someone on here must have one on a wreck. At worst the reversed polarity may have damaged the alternator. In fact anything electronic (transistors)that was in the on position, maybe. X your fingers. Good luck, mike Quote Link to comment
datsunaholic Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 The alternator and most the relays are also unfused, so the fusable link is the only protection they have. The fusable link IS just a wire... a very small one. And they're still available from the dealer (special order, but available) Quote Link to comment
copacetickid Posted November 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 yeah, that's what happened. *phew* the fusible link got fried and protected everything else. i didn't know it was an actual fuse, i've never seen one before. i thought it was just a place you could put a fuse. the battery is fine, but i can't test the alternator cause i gots no carb in it. thanks for all your input everyone! anyone got a fusible link they want to sell me? i cut it open and this is all that's left of it. Quote Link to comment
72 327 Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 Autozone actually has fusable links. Most are for FORD's but as long as get the right amps you will be ok. If you look in the wire section at autozone you will find them there like $10 each. Quote Link to comment
]2eDeYe Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 Looks like it did it's job. You should be ok. CLose call that one :D Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 We still don't know about the alternator. The Pos battery terminal is connected directly to it, and there's a ground wire too. Reverse current flow might fry the diodes????? Let's hope not. Quote Link to comment
datsunaholic Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 Hopefully the fusable went before the diodes (the alternator goes through the fuseable) and saved the alt, but you'll know when you fix the fuseable. Quote Link to comment
hang_510 Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 in a pinch (ie BFE when it happens-been there) you can use a smaller gauge wire to TEMPORARILY get it running. some auto parts store also sell generic fusible link wire. so... hypothetically, this never happened :blink: Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted November 1, 2007 Report Share Posted November 1, 2007 Hypothetically, the fusible wire is color coded as to the current it can handle, I think. The 620 is green. Quote Link to comment
copacetickid Posted November 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2007 carb is in, and it starts. i used some jumper cables in place of the link for the time being, and everything i can think of seems fine. d-holic is right, the alternator is behind the fusible link, it's the starter that is directly connected to the pos terminal of the batt. however, the voltage after starting the truck only went up to 13.8... i've never measured my truck before, but my honda used to go up to 14-16 volts. i can't imagine the alternator only getting slightly fried, it's either the diodes or nothing...right? Quote Link to comment
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