WTF did I do now?

I just reinstalled the battery and was pushing on the battery cover stupidy with a wrench in my hand. The wrench went between the battery and chassis causing an impressive display of sparks. When I went to start the car, the gauges and ful pump went on for a quick second then nothing. Still nothing. There's plenty of voltage on the battery and from the battery to the chassis but I don't know were to go from there. What broke?

edit: sorry for the typing, my left hand is still shaking a bit.

Voltage but no current? Does voltage drop with headlights on? Can you jumper in, or swap with another battery?

headlights won't do anything. nothing works at all.

You electrocuted your car!

Wow Dave, there's almost nothing electrical on the -6 compared
to the -4. Did you say whether the starter turns? I would be
thinking the battery is damaged, or unrelated to your sparks
the ground post is now separated from the body.

Dave, I can come over and help if you want.

Mike

Dave,
you could have shorted the battery out...melted the lead together in a single cell...

Try a few test.

The easiest test is to bring the battery to a sears store and have them test it under a load.

Another test is to put a charger on it to see if it will take a charge.

Rich

Ground post is still there. Battery + to chassis voltage is the same as battery + to - so I know the ground is solid. No starter no fuel pump no nothing.l It's as if there is no battery in the car at all.

If any one is interested in helping, give me a little notice and I'll make a beer run. This really pisses me off. I had just finished working on a few areas of the body and had planned on bleading the brakes so I could drive it this week. If I had only put down th wrench... Time for a suicide smiley!

QUOTE (r_towle @ Sep 10 2005, 08:22 PM)

Dave, you could have shorted the battery out...melted the lead together in a single cell... Try a few test. The easiest test is to bring the battery to a sears store and have them test it under a load. Another test is to put a charger on it to see if it will take a charge. Rich

Well, the battery is from sears, so I'll see if they can test it. Can I run jumper cables to just the 914's cables and not cause any (further) harm?

A real easy test would be to disconnect the battery and connect a battery out of one of your other cars to see if you get any juice to the 914 with a different battery.
At least you would quickly find out if its the battery or something in the car that way.

Dave,
There was super-high current (much higher than starter current) flowing through your + post and probably terminal, via your tool, to ground. This created super high heat for a short period and may have compromized the terminal/post or wire/terminal interface. You could verify your 12 v past the battery posts; either at the terminal or, better yet, fuse # 11 (2nd from right under dash), or the 25A fuse on the relay board. Monitor it as you turn the ignition on. In the past, I've measured good voltage on the post, but a huge drop on the terminal itself with the slightest load (ignition on). I've also had a bad battery connection that seemed good (gauges, fuel pump worked) till I ran the starter, then it seemed like an open circuit. It was a high resistance connection that got hot and opened when I ran the starter. After a few minutes it would cool off and turn back into a high resistance connection. Ended up being a bad connection of the wire to the terminal, plus the terminal was pitted.
Ed

Did the same thing with my watch band. The Tag didn't miss a beat but it left me with a nice burn on my wrist. No clues on how to fix the prob. Always take my watch off now when working on the beast.

With a voltmeter across the battery, turn on lights, starter, and check for voltage drop. If voltage drop is significant, then its the battery. Also try measuring voltage from the positive terminal on the battery to chassis ground instead of battery ground. This would test the ground strap from the battery.

If no voltage drop when starter/lights are turned on, then there may be some wire damage. Even check the ground wire from the battery to the chassis. Wires can get smoked by too much current where the wires inside melt but the insulation is still intact. With the battery disconnected, check the ground wire with the ohm meter on your multimeter. You should have zero ohms from the negative terminal to the chassis. Even 5 or 10 ohms here will stop everything from working.

If the battery wires are ok, Simply follow the wires from the battery to where ever they go and measure voltage to chassis ground. Somewhere (if the battery and its wires are ok), you will go from voltage to no-voltage. This is the place of your issue.

One of the nice things about these cars is that the electrical system is so very simple and easy to work on. Use the schematic in your repair manual to follow wires so you don't get confused.

Good luck.

Spoke

We did this with a truck while off roading. (don't ask. Frgot the battery tiedowns ) The sparks were impressive though. It killed the battery and once we replaed it the truck ran just fine. Hopefully the battery is your weak link.

Thanks for all the replies. I haven't had time to do anymore poking around (Sundays are realy busy for us bible thumpers). I'll try changing out the battery first (using jumpers on the 914s conductors instead). All of the fuses are fine incluning the two white ones on the relay board (factory /6 unit). What concerns me is that I did have that small second of power before death. Hopefully I can look at this tomorrow evening.

No worries. All the "power" was running through your wrench and nothing else. You probably killed the battery although it must have been a serious short for awhile. My car is propelled by 500amp shorts and it doesn't kill the batteries at all!

Ain't elecricity fun? I built a billet battery cover and mount to relocate the battery to the front trunk. When I finished I thought I would polish up the aluminum cover with steel wool. The steel wool caught fire! Can you guess why?
Lucky to be alive. (So far). Elliot

QUOTE (Elliot Cannon @ Sep 11 2005, 08:49 PM)

Ain't elecricity fun? I built a billet battery cover and mount to relocate the battery to the front trunk. When I finished I thought I would polish up the aluminum cover with steel wool. The steel wool caught fire! Can you guess why? Lucky to be alive. (So far). Elliot

did it mess up your pacemaker?????

QUOTE (Aaron Cox @ Sep 11 2005, 08:55 PM)

QUOTE (Elliot Cannon @ Sep 11 2005, 08:49 PM) Ain't elecricity fun?  I built a billet battery cover and mount to relocate the battery to the front trunk.  When I finished I thought I would polish up the aluminum cover with steel wool.  The steel wool caught fire!  Can you guess why?              Lucky to be alive.   (So far).    Elliot did it mess up your pacemaker?????

Nah!! I gots me one of them nucular powered ones.
Cheers, Elliot

And while I'm at Sears, I need a new 13mm wrench as I burned off 1/2 of one leg of the "C".

... and if you happen to have 20 batteries in your car with tremendous ability to generate... sparks ... then I recommend tool dip!

QUOTE (djm914-6 @ Sep 12 2005, 06:26 AM)

And while I'm at Sears, I need a new 13mm wrench as I burned off 1/2 of one leg of the "C".

arc welding

Well, I guess I need a new battery. I finally got a chance to look at the car tonight. I hooked the Passat up to it and it started right up.

Any reason I shouldn't get a cheepo Sears special?

QUOTE (djm914-6 @ Sep 14 2005, 02:26 PM)

Any reason I shouldn't get a cheepo Sears special?

Yes, several.

cheap batteries suck...they leave you stranded.

nuclear batteries are cool, but wearing lead suits to change the plutonium canister is a real pain and hot in the summer.

Mr.Fusion would be pretty cool...

I'd go with a good battery you can afford....Optima anyone?