Had a battree blow up when trying to start my old Bronco II. It always charged correctly. Took it to Kragen auto parts in Santa Ana, Ca. and they replaced it. Perhaps those styrofoam balls they used to use had something to do with the explosion. Other than that, never had another one blowed up. Some of those oldies would soften up but that is it.
Had them swell up and boil all the fluid out but,luckily never explode. I could see a overcharged battery exploding with ****ty battery connections,turn the key on spark and gases explode. Work on alot of trucks carrying 4 batteries with goofball drivers not watching guages at all,but 1st alert to an overcharging battery is the awful rotton egg smell it lets off.
Robert, I am sure that you mean volts and not amps. It is possible that the battery was the cause of the problem. You may want to check with the battery manufacturer and find out if it is covered under warranty and see if their battery requires something special for a charging system. You should check all your ground wires to ***ure good connections (battery to engine, battery to body, instrument cluster, etc.). As well as the positive cables. ~Alden
If you double the voltage the amps get doubled. You make a point most don't realize. The battery is actually the regulator of the system. What people call the regulator is actually a sensor that adjusts based on the staste of the battery. Because of that, a bad battery can cause the charging system to misbehave. The bad connections you mentioned can also provide faulty information to the regulator(sensor) causing incorrect alternator output.
You need to study OHM's law a little bit, doubling the voltage does not double the amps. The battery is not the regulator, the battery is the load, and the regulator is just what it is called, it responds to what ever load it sees, if it is hooked to a bad load that is not holding charge it will pour more in to it, that is what boils a battery. If battery is in good state and taking charge the regulator senses it and tapers the charge down.
I blew one up checking for the source of a miss by pulling off plug wires. Guess I should have noticed how close the main charge wire terminal of the Alternator was to #1 spark plug! Batterys don't seem to like spark plug voltage...what a mess and fright. Acid everywhere...head under tap for 10 minutes rinsing out eyes!!! "Lets try this one first"...BOOM!
Yiu may be confused, but I think you just didn't understand what I posted. Increasing the voltage supplied to a given load will increase current flow(amps). If that wasn't the case you could use any device with any voltage. Yes, the battery(and the car) are loads. You confirm what I posted, that the regulator responds to whatever load it sees. For the system to work as intended the battery cannot be defective. If the battery is defective the regulator can see something other than what it should, causing the alternator output to be inappropriate. So while the regulator does regulate the alternators output, it does that based on sensing what's happening with the battery. So, in that way, the battery is the regulator. It determines what the regulator tells the alternator to do. Because of that, the first requirement for testing a charging system is a good battery.
Had a battery in a 77 TBird blow up in my face once. I was checking it out and told the wife to try to crank it. Kaboom was all I remember. I think wearing gl***es at the time saved my eyesight, but not my clothes or the paint on my fender.Funny, all that acid and no skin burns. Maybe it had boiled most of it dry? I am much more cautious of standing over one now.
Not confused at all, you made a statement, double the volts and that doubles the amps, not true, that is a different statement than increasing voltage will increase current flow, again I would refer you to OHM's law. A battery can be defective and the system can perform normally, just depends on what the defect is. One example being one that it is aging out and will not deliver full cranking amps, yet the regulator and other loads in the car all work fine, and the alternator output will be appropriate as you put it. The regulator is still the regulator and not the battery. I agree the first place to look when you encounter a problem is the battery and connections.
I was hoping you would try to prove me wrong and discover your error. That didn't happen so I'll do it for you. You think I am ignorant of OHM's law, you decide. What applies to this discussion is : V(voltage) divided by R(resistance) = I(current/amps) In our case we will compare 6 volts and 12 volts. Resistance can be anything. Whatever value you chose will produce the same proportional difference between 6 and 12 volt current numbers. 6 volts divided by 1ohm = 6 amps 12 volts divided by 1ohm = 12 amps 6 volts divided by 3ohms = 2 amps 12 volts divided by 3ohms = 4 amps Note that when voltage is DOUBLED current/amps through the circuit DOUBLES. Even without doing the computation, if you think about it, it just makes sense. I agree that there are battery faults which will not cause unwanted alternator behavior. But as I already pointed, a defective battery CAN fool the regulator. So in that way the battery is the ultimate regulator of the system. The regulator can only work correctly when the battery allows it to. That is because the "regulator" is actually a sensor in a closed loop system rather than a controller in an open loop system. You can call the regulator whatever you want, but that's how it works.
Right you are sir, as long as the resistance stays the same. I should have and almost did review the law, if I had I would not have argued that point with you. I thought I had a better memory than that. I agree that the right defect in a battery can cause a regulator to overcharge, but a short in some other accessory can cause the same thing, and even a healthy battery won't regulate that, so I am going to continue to call them by their factory names, and you can call the battery the regulator if you like. Thanks for the civil discourse, made be go back and do a little reviewing, enjoyed it.
I've personally had 2 blow up. One was on the charger. It was a shot battery anyway, probably had a short in it that opened up when it got hot and made a spark, so yes it is possible that a full fielded alternator could do that. I have also only seen a few alternators go to full field on their own. The other one was also a bad battery. I had just been load testing it and told the guy he needed a new battery. He said he would buy one from a relatives gas station and he started it with me standing over that battery. The very next time he started it at the other place, it blew up and put a piece of plastic through the hood right where I was standing the last time he started it. Could have killed me.
That's what we were talking about, doubling the voltage. If you change the load then yes, current flow changes. That's why a 6 volt 10 watt bulb has a filament with less resistance than a 12 volt bulb would have to draw the same 10 watts. Or another way of thinking of it, two 10 watt bulbs in series will draw the same amount of current on 12 volts as on will draw on 6 volts. I think we agree on this, but just have a different way of thinking of it. In one of my previous posts I also mentioned wiring connections. A short in the system could present more load than the alternator and battery can supply, which would pull down the system voltage. Not what you would want, but that's not the same thing as fooling the regulator. Depending on the alternator, a short in the control wires between the alternator and external regulator could cause over or under charging. About the OHM's law thing, no problem. Although I try to avoid it, I have been the victim of faulty memory once or twice myself.
I stated amps and ment volts-So you are thinking it was a bad battery? I'm really trying to find the reason why this happened
Amps or volts, over the internet no one can tell for sure why it happened. I believe all the possibilities have been mentioned, so just check each of them. As has been mentioned, a wiring problem is a good possibility. It could have been the battery. If your alternator has an internal regulator a lot of auto parts stores have the equipment to do a pretty thorough check on it, and with the hope of selling you a replacement they usually do it free.
Robert, I think the battery may have caused it. The battery may have shorted and the alternator kept shoving higher voltage at it and instead of charging the battery just got hotter. I know nothing about a gel battery. I recommend checking with the manufacturer. They are a different breed of cat. ~Alden
Robert, look at this article, especially items #8 and #9. http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles/battery-articles/battery-basics.html I hope this helps. Alden
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