Battery replacement issue (big one)

Unless the fusible link - which is in series with the diodes and nothing
else - opened in time to keep the diodes from being destroyed.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

On this particular car, no. Cable goes directly to the negative jump
post/main body ground on the right front strut tower (and is clearly
labeled as the negative jump post). There is a heavy cable going off of
that neg. jump post that - I think - goes to the starter. There are
some braided grounding straps from the right fender well (approx. 6 or 8
inches from the neg. jump post) going to the engine block.

But, in this car, not directly. There is a main cable going to the
positive jump post - the red thing shown in the OP's first photo. There
are two other cables from that pos. jump post - one goes to starter, the
third goes to everything else (except alternator/generator). The second
(smaller) wire coming off the battery cable clamp is the hot wire to the
alternator/gernator.


Various systems have additional

FWIW, the OP's replacement battery has the same post arrangement as the
original battery - but he has it rotated 180°. Perhaps the previous
battery had been installed backwards *OR* he made the change when he put
this battery in, but failed to re-arrange the cables to the opposite end
of the battery compartment.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

The wiper controller is fried.

Most of the electronics in the car will need DC-DC converters, 12V is
much to high to high for modern electronics so the voltage has to be
converted to something usable (in the mid 90's that was probably 3.3V).
The DC to DC converter modules should be diode protected so most of your
electronic modules are probably OK. However the fact that the wiper
module is busted is a worrisome sign. It may be that the wiper module is
a relic of the 60s that ran directly off of 12V which is why it didn't
have any protection. The microprocessors in the car can't possible use
12V so I would guess that they are OK. However I'm a computer engineer
not an automotive electronics engineer so it's possible that I'm wrong.


For future reference Red means HOT, Black means GROUND.

 

Nothing concentrates the mind like the prospect of being hanged in the
morning.

Dr. Johnson


Shorting a car battery can be fatal, the OP is very lucky that he got off
with only a burned hand. When something is a life or death matter you
check and the check again. I can see how a professional mechanic might
get blase about batteries because they do it every day, but an amateur
should treat the thing like it's a landmine. I've always gotten my
replacement batteries at Sears, you leave the car for an hour, go to the
food court and get an Orange Julius, and come back when it's done.

 

Hmmmm.... sounds like I may have forgotten a good story... ;-)

 

It started with, "it has to be in Drive when setting the idle speed,
right?" and went downhill rapidly from there.

 

lol...beat me to it...it's not the volts that kill you, it's the amps. i was
working on a 24 volt (2 12volt batteries) electric wheelchair once and i
hadn't noticed the owner had put a non-standard plug on the charger cable.
it had exposed prongs and it touched the metal frame....wow....fireworks
and the plug welded itself to the frame while burning a hole in it...and
this was heavy gauge chromed steel...and that was only a 100 amps system...

as you say, 700 amps can create quite a show.

 

Since areas of the body have a characteristic resistance, because of
Ohm's law (for a given resistance, voltage and current are
proportional), I've always thought that was an extremely ignorant cliché
- a way for semi-technical people to try to impress non-technical
people, when in reality it shows ignorance (to the truly technical
person). Either the person making the statement is ignorant of Ohm's
law or its implications, or hasn't thought the meaning of the statement
thru before making it. In reality it also comes down to what the
impedance of the source of the voltage and current is (resistor divider
effect), but on its face, the cliché shows ignorance.