What not to do when you've got those 12v

The Drach Man

Club Member
Where I work,we're rebuilding a 1966 Leyland bus engine. 6 cylinder diesel. Its been drawing a lot of juice on test , so the chap working on it popped the battery on a starter pack/ charger and upon completion, took it off, connected it up to starter, and turned away.

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A massive explosion, and lots of shocked faces. Lots of acid sprayed - luckily, it exploded on the side facing away from the 2 blokes working on the engine.

We reckon we'd connected it up too soon, lots of hydrogen still hanging around, and somehow, he generated a spark. Bugger me sideways.

I've seen batteries spark, but never pop. You read about this, but seeing it and hearing it....wow. Lucky.
 
Was driving a scammel routeman tipper years ago for ta wells they had batteries behind the seats i was being jumpstarted when the apprentice connected them up wrong and one went bang never have i Debussed right so fast….
 
Possibly another daft question but here goes. I can understand a spark as the battery is connected but what would cause it when the connection is made and the feller has turned away?
 
Possibly another daft question but here goes. I can understand a spark as the battery is connected but what would cause it when the connection is made and the feller has turned away?


I think he finished charging the battery (which was on a remote wheeled dolly) then ran a red positive from the terminal, turned away and held the cable to connect to the starter - the engine being on a cradle. Maybe the neg was connected already(!?) but in the space between connection at one end and then the other, the cable sparked at the terminal end. He was facing the engine at the time. Luckily.
 
Don't say a lot for Yuasa Batteries! :highly_amused:
That would fuck any battery. Basic schoolboy error, not letting the battery gases vent off for a few minutes after charging. It's a process that was drummed into me as an apprentice vehicle mechanic.

Obviously the bigger the battery, the more gas and the bigger the bang. One reason why you don't charge them on a vehicle, particularly if said vehicle is inside, or more particularly, if the batteries are in a confined space.
 
Always take care with battery charging, it is easy to forget what can happen just because it looks like an inanimate lump sat there. At the pit were huge signs "no smoking in the lamp room" all those rows of lead /acid batteries bubbling away. And as for the charging station for the underground loco's, with several banks of over 2 tons of batteries charging. I must say in over ten years we never had an explosion, but I can remember the Loco garage being evacuated because of toxic fumes once.
 
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