OK, I am a bit confused. My car would not start. I had a neighbor
look at it who was a mechanic when he was a teenager some 50 or 60
years ago. He said that my battery is not properly grounded, and said
I need to ground the battery and the car will start without any more
problems. I went to Home Depot and bought a ten foot ground rod and
drove it in the yard next to my driveway and hooked a 49 gauge red
wire from the rod to the red wire on my car battery. The car still
did not start so I changed that wire to the black battery wire. The
car still would not start so I went back to Home Depot and bought some
black wire and connected that in place of the red wire, so the colors
matched. That still did not solve the problem. I decided to connect
both the red and the black wires from the battery to the ground rod.
As soon as I did, the wires started smoking and the red one melted in
half, leaving a bad burn mark on my fender.

I did all of this and had the battery properly grounded and it still
will not start. I really dont know what to do next. I was a bit
worried anyow because even if the car did start, I would not be able
to move it because it was connected to the ground rod, unless I got
some really long wires.

What do I do next?

By the way, I am not sure if that wire was 49 gauge or not, but it
cost 49 cents a foot, so I assume it was.

Willy

wrote in message
...
OK, I am a bit confused. My car would not start. I had a neighbor
look at it who was a mechanic when he was a teenager some 50 or 60
years ago. He said that my battery is not properly grounded, and said
I need to ground the battery and the car will start without any more
problems. I went to Home Depot and bought a ten foot ground rod and
drove it in the yard next to my driveway and hooked a 49 gauge red
wire from the rod to the red wire on my car battery. The car still
did not start so I changed that wire to the black battery wire. The
car still would not start so I went back to Home Depot and bought some
black wire and connected that in place of the red wire, so the colors
matched. That still did not solve the problem. I decided to connect
both the red and the black wires from the battery to the ground rod.
As soon as I did, the wires started smoking and the red one melted in
half, leaving a bad burn mark on my fender.

I did all of this and had the battery properly grounded and it still
will not start. I really dont know what to do next. I was a bit
worried anyow because even if the car did start, I would not be able
to move it because it was connected to the ground rod, unless I got
some really long wires.

What do I do next?

By the way, I am not sure if that wire was 49 gauge or not, but it
cost 49 cents a foot, so I assume it was.

You have drained of your battery ten percent (/10). In order to restore
it's functioning, you need to replenish your battery by the same amount
(*10).

Since your battery is 12V, you therefore need 12V * 10 = 120 Volts.

You have 120 Volts already in your house, so plug an extension cord in an
outlet. Next, cut the other end off; sparking and warmth means it's
working.

When you have the cord cut, splice an inch of insulation off of the black
and the white wires (you can use your teeth if you don't have a wire
stripper).

Connect those two wires to your battery, and you will be back in business.

Jon

In article ,
wrote:

OK, I am a bit confused. My car would not start. I had a neighbor
look at it who was a mechanic when he was a teenager some 50 or 60
years ago. He said that my battery is not properly grounded, and said
I need to ground the battery and the car will start without any more
problems. I went to Home Depot and bought a ten foot ground rod and
drove it in the yard next to my driveway and hooked a 49 gauge red
wire from the rod to the red wire on my car battery. The car still
did not start so I changed that wire to the black battery wire. The
car still would not start so I went back to Home Depot and bought some
black wire and connected that in place of the red wire, so the colors
matched. That still did not solve the problem. I decided to connect
both the red and the black wires from the battery to the ground rod.
As soon as I did, the wires started smoking and the red one melted in
half, leaving a bad burn mark on my fender.

I did all of this and had the battery properly grounded and it still
will not start. I really dont know what to do next. I was a bit
worried anyow because even if the car did start, I would not be able
to move it because it was connected to the ground rod, unless I got
some really long wires.

What do I do next?

By the way, I am not sure if that wire was 49 gauge or not, but it
cost 49 cents a foot, so I assume it was.

Willy

Your neighbor is a knothead. Car grounding and house grounding are two
different things. You have to ground a car battery by driving the
grounding rod *through* battery. For best results, it should be solid
silver, of course. Also, for cars, 49 gauge is too big. That would allow
several electrons to squeeze through side by side, jostling one another
and stumbling all over the place. You want them to go through single
file. (Can't remember who it was, back in the early days, used to wind
guitar pickups with 54 when others were using 42. He had the right idea.)

On Sep 7, 8:08?am, Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,





wrote:
OK, I am a bit confused. My car would not start. I had a neighbor
look at it who was a mechanic when he was a teenager some 50 or 60
years ago. He said that my battery is not properly grounded, and said
I need to ground the battery and the car will start without any more
problems. I went to Home Depot and bought a ten foot ground rod and
drove it in the yard next to my driveway and hooked a 49 gauge red
wire from the rod to the red wire on my car battery. The car still
did not start so I changed that wire to the black battery wire. The
car still would not start so I went back to Home Depot and bought some
black wire and connected that in place of the red wire, so the colors
matched. That still did not solve the problem. I decided to connect
both the red and the black wires from the battery to the ground rod.
As soon as I did, the wires started smoking and the red one melted in
half, leaving a bad burn mark on my fender.

I did all of this and had the battery properly grounded and it still
will not start. I really dont know what to do next. I was a bit
worried anyow because even if the car did start, I would not be able
to move it because it was connected to the ground rod, unless I got
some really long wires.

What do I do next?

By the way, I am not sure if that wire was 49 gauge or not, but it
cost 49 cents a foot, so I assume it was.

Willy

Your neighbor is a knothead. Car grounding and house grounding are two
different things. You have to ground a car battery by driving the
grounding rod *through* battery. For best results, it should be solid
silver, of course. Also, for cars, 49 gauge is too big. That would allow
several electrons to squeeze through side by side, jostling one another
and stumbling all over the place. You want them to go through single
file. (Can't remember who it was, back in the early days, used to wind
guitar pickups with 54 when others were using 42. He had the right idea.)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

More likely a fuel problem. Try pulling a fuel line off and directing
it at those smoking wires while a friend- if you have one- turns the
key. If you still aren't getting ignition, it must be air- so blow
vigorously while doing the former.

On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:33:43 -0700, Sev wrote:

On Sep 7, 8:08?am, Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,





wrote:
OK, I am a bit confused. My car would not start. I had a neighbor
look at it who was a mechanic when he was a teenager some 50 or 60
years ago. He said that my battery is not properly grounded, and said
I need to ground the battery and the car will start without any more
problems. I went to Home Depot and bought a ten foot ground rod and
drove it in the yard next to my driveway and hooked a 49 gauge red
wire from the rod to the red wire on my car battery. The car still
did not start so I changed that wire to the black battery wire. The
car still would not start so I went back to Home Depot and bought some
black wire and connected that in place of the red wire, so the colors
matched. That still did not solve the problem. I decided to connect
both the red and the black wires from the battery to the ground rod.
As soon as I did, the wires started smoking and the red one melted in
half, leaving a bad burn mark on my fender.

I did all of this and had the battery properly grounded and it still
will not start. I really dont know what to do next. I was a bit
worried anyow because even if the car did start, I would not be able
to move it because it was connected to the ground rod, unless I got
some really long wires.

What do I do next?

By the way, I am not sure if that wire was 49 gauge or not, but it
cost 49 cents a foot, so I assume it was.

Willy

Your neighbor is a knothead. Car grounding and house grounding are two
different things. You have to ground a car battery by driving the
grounding rod *through* battery. For best results, it should be solid
silver, of course. Also, for cars, 49 gauge is too big. That would allow
several electrons to squeeze through side by side, jostling one another
and stumbling all over the place. You want them to go through single
file. (Can't remember who it was, back in the early days, used to wind
guitar pickups with 54 when others were using 42. He had the right idea.)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

More likely a fuel problem. Try pulling a fuel line off and directing
it at those smoking wires while a friend- if you have one- turns the
key. If you still aren't getting ignition, it must be air- so blow
vigorously while doing the former.

Who should he blow? The friend, or do it to himself?

The wire's not big enough. You need 0000 cable for a proper ground.

s

wrote in message
...
What do I do next?

By the way, I am not sure if that wire was 49 gauge or not, but it
cost 49 cents a foot, so I assume it was.

Willy

"Steve Barker LT" wrote in
:

The wire's not big enough. You need 0000 cable for a proper ground.

Or a number of smaller cables in parallel.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net