Why did I get Shocked

A steady, good connection across a 12v battery (or 6v either) probably won't give you much of a tingle. But a poor connection that sets up an oscillating current will knock you on your ***! Been there, done that, still have the scars.

 

Ya know mj and the rest of you guys, I've wondered about this 12volt shock business myself, because even as I posted that I thought it was a spark-plug wire, it seemed to me that I vaguely remember getting a 12volt shock at one time myself...on the underside of my arm from the fender, while touching the engine...and being surprised that it could do that. Never thought of it since then until now.

After following the thread and the responses since I posted, and considering that you said it was more of a "buzzzz" or a "tickle" than a jolt...I have to agree with those that said your engine/ch***is/body may need to be grounded better, and that may have been the reason you got a shock, especially if you were wet. I guess it wouldn't be too different from holding a transistor battery to your toungue. I do believe I've heard this discussed before...somewhere...and gathered that you can in-fact get a shock from 12v DC under certain conditions.

I still wouldn't discount a spark-plug wire arcing on the engine/frame/inner fender though. I'm sure if this was the case, that only a portion of the energy was misdirected away from the sparkplug, and could've been reduced from a jolt to a tickle.