Re: Audi Gods Strike -- my battery exploded!!!!

[audial (Alex Kowalski) (Law Guest Account) <lawguest@wppost.depaul.edu>]

You mention that the vehicle you were trying to jumpstart was a

FORD.

I don't know if this is true for every Ford out there, the ones that I've seen
are WIRED IN REVERSE.

Yes, it's true.  Positive is GROUND and wired to the FRAME.

You did hook up the car right for jumpstarting every other vehicle in the
world - it's just that you were jumpstarting a REVERSE-WIRED FORD.

You're lucky your car didn't burn to the ground.  

The reason that I know this is:

I rented a really beat up Ford van from the last rental agency that had any
vehicle other than a pogo stick during the time in Chicago of the
Democratic National Convention.  I was told that the grace period I was
supposed to have to move out of my apartment had been moved up by
two days because the new tenant was coming early.  Unfortunately
there were NO trucks to be had in the city, so I had to settle for this Mad
Max van that they guy had leaking oil in his lot.  

When I picked it up, he had it running in the lot.  I took it back to my
apartment building, parked it in front and put the flashers on so I wouldn't
get towed.  Went inside and started moving boxes.  About 1 hour later (it
is now close to midnight) I go back out and try to start it - click!  The
battery is dead.  I have no running car at the time and my phone is
disconnected because I'm moving.  I flag down a taxicab driver and offer
to pay him to jumpstart my van.  He's driving a Chevy.  We hook up the
batteries in near darkness (the underhood lamp doesn't work either on
this van - go figure).  But I made sure by tactile sense on my end that +
was to + and - to -.   Fifteen seconds later the FORD starts smoking like
Vesuvius.  I tear the battery cables free of the Chevy, run inside and
knock on the Super's door and ask to borrow a flashlight (mine is packed
in a box somewhere...he isn't happy).  Get back outside and have a look:
sure enough, Positive lead runs straight to the frame on the FORD.  We
switch 'em around and the van starts right up.

Ten minutes have passed and,  the cabbie's lights start to go dim.  It
seems his alternator is blown.  I offer to pay for it, and in what must be
the most astounding gesture of grace ever to come from a cab driver, he
says, "Ah, forget it man.  The garage'll take care of it".  I give him the last
twenty I have in my pocket and he roars off for home base.

Best Wishes,

Alex
'86 5KCSTQ
audial@aol.com