blueman wrote:
aemeijers writes:
Take a flashlight and look down alongside the battery, and see if the
tray is painted metal or plastic covered. If painted metal, and you
see rust when you peek down there, good idea to pull the battery and
repair as needed. (paint, reinforcement, etc.) It can ruin your whole
day if you are driving down a bumpy road, and the rusty hold-down bolt
breaks, and the battery bounces and shorts out against the inside of
the hood. BTDT.

Wow - that sounds quite unlucky - so just out of curiousity what were
the symptoms and results you observed from the broken-free battery and short?

Magic smoke, and car no worky. (Magic smoke is what makes all electrical
devices work- you let out the smoke, and the device doesn't work any
more.) Dead short across the battery fried the fusible link in the feed
cable, like it is supposed to. A little blacksmithing on battery tray, a
new hold-down clamp (the old tall kind, not the modern low clips) from
the junkyard, a new fusible link segment and some compression
connectors, and it all came back to life. This was a
pre-electronic-everything car, mind you. Hate to think what it would do
to a modern rolling computer.

--
aem sends...