Classic Rover terror

[muskyman]

Ok I will play.

I was pulling my boat out a remote boat landing up in the north woods of wisconsin. I was driving my wifes RRC and right as I winch the boat up I smell that terrible smell of car fire.

I run around to the front of the car and smoke is pouring out from under the hood so I quick go and pop the hood. That alternator is shooting flames like a jet engine:Wow1: the thing is just s roaring flame with flames blasting outa every crack.

Well knowing that shutting down the motor like this will often start melting wires and maybe turn the truck into a charred mess I start looking for something to disconnect the ground wire first. well no such luck I have no tools in that truck so I go back and grab some manley pliers outa my fly fishing pack and race back to cut the ground wire.

I am now racing to cut or more like chew through the ground wire the whole time I am saying to myself "ignore the fire cut the wire" "ignore the fire cut the wire"...well once through the wire the car dies right away and the the fire turns to just a small little flame coming off the back of the alternator. I quickly poured a ice cold PBR on that and it went right out.

I then unwired the terminals from the alternator and then rebraided the ground wire back togather with the pliers. The truck started right up and I drove it home to the cabin on the battery.

I got off cheap only needing to replace the alternator:victory:

 

[KevinNY]

Sorry about losing the cold PBR.

 

[muskyman]

Sorry about losing the cold PBR.

PBR has become my recession beer...as long as its ice cold...not to shabby:sombrero:

then again I grew up on the stuff in milwaukee

 

[jrose609]

Ok I will play.

I quickly poured a ice cold PBR on that and it went right out.

I then unwired the terminals from the alternator and then rebraided the ground wire back togather with the pliers. The truck started right up and I drove it home to the cabin on the battery.

I got off cheap only needing to replace the alternator:victory:

But the waste of a good PBR????????? :beer:

 

[Nadir_E]

I need some education here - why was it more effective to cut the ground wire than to switch off the engine? Electrically speaking, aren't those the same things?

 

[R_Lefebvre]

No, they're not the same. All the grounds are always grounded. Disconnecting the battery ground before the positive is always a good idea. When you disconnect a positive wire, the live end of the positive wire will arc if it touches anything grounded. Or, even your tool you're using on the positive can arc if it touches the ground.

When disconnecting the ground, it's much safter. It's not likely to arc to ground, and if your tool touches ground, you're still safe.

Back in the day, I was trying to disconnect an alternator in a VW Fox. I had a wrench on the positive terminal, and accidentally touched the block with the other end of the wrench. The wrench instantly welded to the block. Only quick action with a hammer to beat the wrench off the block prevented disaster.

The same would happen if you are wrenching on the positive battery terminal. But, if you have a tool on the negative/ground side, it's safe.

 

[weatherm]

Hey don't be to upset.. I thought I blew my engine up last night. My truck started sputtering and well its 10pm my head lights are bouncing all over the place and I'm going well this is going to suck. Then the truck dies not before the oil pressure light comes on. Ohh crap I'm a block away from the house... I crank it back up and get enough momentum to coast into my drive way. Theres oil all over my engine bay! Apparently I didn't crank down the valve cover fully ( one of the rubber bushing was loose and washing squished down) Seemed like it was but it wasn't. Then I had a leaky hose ( that I just replaced).

So to cause this .. I adjusted my valves ( didn't really need adjusting anyways) and put the cover back on and bolted everything back down. About 10 miles round trip is what happened above.

Anyone got any ideas?? All my hoses are hooked up and my wife threatened me with a divorce b/c I have been spending to much time on the "stupid truck" Brilliant!

 

[muskyman]

I need some education here - why was it more effective to cut the ground wire than to switch off the engine? Electrically speaking, aren't those the same things?

when the car is running and the alternator is still spinning the heat gets disapated at the alternator.

The reason this is happening is most often because the diodes have dead shorted.

If you just turn off the engine the main lead from the battery to the alternator turns red hot, melts off the insulation and often ignites everything that is next to it resulting in a full on car fire.

So the way to avoid the car fire is not to try and does the fire but to disconnect the curcuit. Just turning off the car/truck dosent break the curcuit only disconnecting the battery will do that.

also always disconnect the negative cable as then the tool you are using is not "hot/ live" as you work on it.