- Thread starter Gingle
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Scalarocco
Smile, or I'll bite your leg...
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Yes. Take it off completely.
The_Yellow_Ardvark
https://www.death-clock.org/
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YES.
Yes.
Yes.
And just to contradict those, I never disconnect batteries when welding.
The battery acts a reasonable surge suppressor, so will help absorb any current that gets somewhere it shouldn't.
Chances are that if you do manage to blow something up because the battery is connected, you'd have blown it up even if the battery wasn't connected.
The big thing, is make sure you use a suitable earth near to where you're welding.
Damage will only occur if you get voltage flowing where it shouldn't be.
The battery acts a reasonable surge suppressor, so will help absorb any current that gets somewhere it shouldn't.
Chances are that if you do manage to blow something up because the battery is connected, you'd have blown it up even if the battery wasn't connected.
The big thing, is make sure you use a suitable earth near to where you're welding.
Damage will only occur if you get voltage flowing where it shouldn't be.
ajlelectronics
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Quite right. The electrical system is at low impedance with battery connected. Disconnected, you have lots of aerials not that it matters either. Do whatever ritual makes you happy, none of it will affect the outcome one way or the other. Just don't waste money on snake oil like "surge protectors", they are no different to elephant deterrents for your 'fridge.
What are you going to so then? I've asked this question before and am never any wiser after reading these threads!!
finyuk2005
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Guineafowl
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I would disconnect the battery if the brother’s watching. If something goes wrong, EVERYONE will tell him you should have, even though it doesn‘t make sense electrically.
Decent earth point makes all the difference.
redlig
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One aspect that most people don't think of is the escape of Hydrogen( it's what that little tube is for ) and it being ignited by a spark from the weld. I arrived at a dealers to witness the mechanics wandering around completely dazed seconds after one had exploded as they watched a weld being done on a bike with the battery still in place .
Wildefalcon
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If you disconnect the battery, should you also isolate the alternator?
That's exactly why I remove it.
As a 17 yr old, despite disconnecting the battery in a car, and covering it up, I still had bits of it, including liquid, whistling mostly past my head moments after striking up from a spark in the wrong place.
A swift shower, followed by copious amounts of water over the back of the other car meant I was okay and there was only a tiny spot of upset paint on the back of the other car to remind me . . .
The battery, despite most of it missing, still started the car another two times!
On a motorcycle type device, I would guess any welding is pretty close to the battery - for the sake a few minutes, I'd remove it.
So far, never damaged any electrics on any car since . . . well, other than the Ford Fiesta that I set on fire welding inside the wheel arch and torching the felt sound deadening on the bulkhead under the dash . . . that required a roll of insulating tape and some careful separation of melted wiring . . . another lesson learnt early on.
ajlelectronics
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Justified of course, but disconnection only is merely a religion.
Mick Annick
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I did exactly the same to Mrs A’s Morris Minor, but that was terminal.
