Junk Cranker

nctom

nctom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2008
Location
CONCORD NC
I find myself buying and working on a lot of stuff that needs a temp. clean fuel supply/pump and a cranking battery. So I bolted a small electric fuel pump to the neg post of a fresh deep cycle, 2 lengths of fuel line, a alligator clip for the pump's hot wire. With both threaded and top posts it will start and put fuel to most any carbed engine. Add my remote starter button, a few jumper wires and I can crank a engine on the floor or in the frame rails. Me likey!

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An alligator clip is a sure fire way to generate an arc on anything with a load, like a small inductive pump motor.
Gasoline vapor is flammable as hell...
Lead Acid Batteries explode violently in the face of fire.

I think that is a nice recipe for blindness when they exploding acid hits your eyes and potentially fatal consequences.
 
Ron said:
An alligator clip is a sure fire way to generate an arc on anything with a load, like a small inductive pump motor.
Gasoline vapor is flammable as hell...
Lead Acid Batteries explode violently in the face of fire.

I think that is a nice recipe for blindness when they exploding acid hits your eyes and potentially fatal consequences.
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Thanks for you concern, Ron. Since a battery has to be charging to produce any flamable fumes, I am good there. The pump and hoses are new, tight and pressure tested, so there arent any gas vapors. Your point about the aligator clip throwing sparks is a good one. I will add a toggle switch in line and hard wire it to the post. I always have a extinguiser sitting there. In theory, all electric fuel pumps are potentially ticking bombs. Think about the millions of intank units out there with 12 volt pumps submerged in 20 gallons of fuel.
 
nctom said:
Thanks for you concern, Ron. Since a battery has to be charging to produce any flamable fumes, I am good there. The pump and hoses are new, tight and pressure tested, so there arent any gas vapors. Your point about the aligator clip throwing sparks is a good one. I will add a toggle switch in line and hard wire it to the post. I always have a extinguiser sitting there. In theory, all electric fuel pumps are potentially ticking bombs. Think about the millions of intank units out there with 12 volt pumps submerged in 20 gallons of fuel.
Click to expand...

A battery can off gas during discharge just as easy.
How close will your gas can be? fumes from an open top?
Gas vapor is much more flammable than liquid gasoline...a submerged pump is less dangerous than a stand alone, imho.
Typically an intank pump will have potted connections.
You have a metal bodies fuel pump electrically and mechanically connected to the negative terminal, any thing between the pump body and the posi post is a short path.
I appreciate the ingenuity and the usefullness, the application scares the shit outta me, but I aint gonna use it, so.....::beer::
Hey Y'all Watch This!
 
Dats right! This was a joke! :D The 2 items were laying there on the tailgate side by side and I couldnt resist. Looks like a freakin bomb to me!
 
the fuel pump submerged is the key to that.
a battery can have explosive gasses at any point. i say this from experience. i spent a month with eye patches, and the doctors telling me i may never see again, after leaning over the hood of a car with a cigarette in my mouth. it was an instant explosion and i caught it all with my face(no assholes that's not why i look like this)
 
It's equal parts brilliant and terrifying.
 
transman731 said:
the fuel pump submerged is the key to that.
a battery can have explosive gasses at any point. i say this from experience. i spent a month with eye patches, and the doctors telling me i may never see again, after leaning over the hood of a car with a cigarette in my mouth. it was an instant explosion and i caught it all with my face(no assholes that's not why i look like this)
Click to expand...
Lee, I dont know if you saw where this was a spoof, or not. A early april fools gag.
Your exp. may serve to educate another wrench turner and save him from serious burns. You are lucky to be able to see and talking to us about it.
I learned the hard way not to use long, boxed end wrenches on batteries or hot elect. post like solenoids.
Have you ever seen how a electric scissor lift has 2 big swing out trays of 6 volt deep cycles? I was sitting on a rolling stool replacing the batts. Using my long combo boxed end 1/2-9/16'' wrench. It welded itsself between 2 post when I let it touch and I couldnt jerk the box end loose. It went off like a shotgun right beside my head. I didnt catch it like you did, just barely missed it. One of those moments when you realize you just dodged a bullet. Glad you recovered from it, everyone on here has great things to say about you and your work.
 
Batteries are no joke, as innocuous as they may seem.

36v battery in a forklift carries in excess of 1500 amps and will melt things in a hurry.

Had a customer slam the seat deck down on the battery connector cables just after the battery was charged, dead shorted the battery thru the chassis of the lift, blew ALL the cell caps off and there was a small mushroom cloud above the lift. the resulting short arced out nice notches in the seat deck/hood and melted the battery cables. $1200 repair

when the battery guys solder new cables on they use a torch, but before they ever light a flame they'll open every cell and purge with straight O2, mostly just wafting the torch head unlit over each cell ( unlit O2 only ) then proceed to drill out the old posts or connector bars and then solder in new using torch.

Batteries ALWAYS have some hydrogen gas build up around them, it may not always be in a combustible amount, but it is always there. much heavier if it has just been charged, it will out gas until it cools off.
 
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