The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Funny True Story - Enjoy!

Well, I was in the process of re-wiring under the dash, and was adding voltage reducers, winshield washer button switch, heater motor reducer and switch, and replacing the 6 volt cigarette lighter with a 12 volt "power plug" for accessories like my cell phone charger. I was a wise man, you see. I had disconnected the battery while doing this so I was well protected from shocks. But I was a little lazy, since I didn't want to down on the floorboards one last time to double check everything. So while in my cab, with the doors and windows closed, and the truck in the garage with doors closed, I made my battery connections.

Within seconds the positive cable was stuck to the positive battery post and the cab was full of smoke. I opened the door and jumped out and the smoke rolled out into the garage. My lovely wife opened the door from the house to the garage and yelled "I smell something hot!" (God love her!)

Luckily, I had only fried the wire to the new power outlet....and singed my pride! I bet you've guessed by now that 1) I didn't have an in-line fuse for the power outlet and 2) that I had connected the power lead directly to the power outlet ground instead of the hot post.....OOPS!!!!

I was amazed how fast a 12 guage wire could melt! No other damage. Put a fuse in, new wire and I'm back in business.

I think I'll change my name to "old Double-Checker"

LOL! We've all been there in one way or another, Bruce!


PS - Did you say "windshield washer?" Fill me in -- can I install a windshield washer in my truck??? What and how? Thanks!

Best way to find a short is to follow the smoke!

When I worked at a big truck shop (chip haulers and dump trucks) we would sometimes have a truck/trailer come in with a problem with the marker lights on the chip trailer.
after spending enough time to locate the obvious(plugs, connections and grounding of wires) we would take a 1/4 inch bolt and cut the head off. put it in place of the auto-resetting type fuse and wait for the smoke
Run new wires and the problem was fixed

I used to do hardware maintenance on business mini-computers (before the days of the PC) and one of my favorite methods of finding a short was overfusing. Worked almost every time. Put a 20 amp fuse in a 1 amp circuit and the short would usually be identified (as someone said) by the smoke coming out of it.

One particular exception to this method sticks in my mind. I was working on a check sorter that kept blowing the transport fuse. So I kept bumping up the amperage on the fuse and finally put a 50 amp sucker in there. "That otta find it", said I. Well, it identified the weak link in the circuit...which happened to be the printed circuit board traces on the back side of the power supply. Blew them suckers to kingdom come. That wasn't the problem, tho...just the weakest link in the chain.

The problem was the operator. She was a rather large lady and as she would enter a check amount and drop the check into the transport (this was a Burroughs S200, in case anyone remembers those) she'd inadvertently move her leg and bump the detail printer drawer, which would momentarily disrupt the magnetically operated reed switch interlock...and shut the transport down for a split second. When this was repeated over and over again, the transport fuse (or the circuit board traces) would overheat and blow out.

That one took me a coupla months to solve.

I'm sure glad I write software now instead of fix hardware. It's much less frustrating...even with Java thrown into the mix (I hate Java in case that wasn't apparent.)