97 Ranger, hooked the battery up backwards

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Big Al - 29 Oct 2005 07:29 GMT

A friend of mine called me from 1500 miles away. He hooked the battery up
backwards in his 87 Ford Ranger. He said smoke came out of a plastic box
near the battery. When he connected the battery up the correct way the truck
is dead. I'm guessing he fried a fusible link. Never owning a Ranger I have
no idea what is in the plastic box he's telling me about. Any guesses? What
are the chances the computer survived?

Al

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wß - 29 Oct 2005 15:33 GMT

> A friend of mine called me from 1500 miles away. He hooked the battery
> up backwards in his 87 Ford Ranger. He said smoke came out of a
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Al

Could it be a fuse block, or is that under the dash? Or maybe a massive
connector for the wire harness? Did it smoke when he hooked it up or
when he tried to start it? I had an '89 Ranger and I don't recall a lot
of complicated BS under the hood. If it smoked when he tried to start it
he would have shorted the battery out thru the solenoid which would
surely melt the solenoid contacts. Might have also burned up diodes in
the alternator. What a mess....

Not to hijack a thread or dis FORD but that reminds me of a story. I
actully observed a '60's vintage VW microbus with the battery installed
backwards, and running! The guy had bought a 6 to 12v convertor from the
RS store I worked at and it was blowing fuses. After he fried the second
one I went out in the parking lot to see what's up and observed a 6 volt
battery with the positive side grounded. He had installed the new
battery several weeks before and it had acted funny but was seemingly
working fine. As I watched he removed the battery, turned it around and
reinstalled it with neg ground. I told him to polorize the voltage
regulator at the very least, some voodoo that was usually performed when
you installed a new one, which he did. He proceeded to start the darn
thing up. The generator light lit for a few minutes, went out and
everything was fine! I have no clue why no damage was done, or the
battery hadn't exploded! I suppose because it was a generator instead of
an alternaor and an old type voltage regulator.

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Hairy - 29 Oct 2005 16:24 GMT

> > A friend of mine called me from 1500 miles away. He hooked the battery
> > up backwards in his 87 Ford Ranger. He said smoke came out of a
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> regulator at the very least, some voodoo that was usually performed when
> you installed a new one, which he did.

Actually, it's the generator that sometimes needed to be polarized, not the
regulator.

Dave

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Big Al - 29 Oct 2005 17:30 GMT

> Could it be a fuse block, or is that under the dash? Or maybe a massive
> connector for the wire harness? Did it smoke when he hooked it up or
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> surely melt the solenoid contacts. Might have also burned up diodes in
> the alternator. What a mess....

It smoked immediately. He didn't get a chance to do anything. It all
happened in a few seconds.

> Not to hijack a thread or dis FORD but that reminds me of a story. I
> actully observed a '60's vintage VW microbus with the battery installed
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> battery hadn't exploded! I suppose because it was a generator instead of
> an alternaor and an old type voltage regulator.

On an old vehicle once the generator is polarized backwards it doesn't care.
In the old days, Fords were positive ground and other cars were negative
ground. Putting a battery in backwards was an common thing.

Al

PS: Thanks for stealing my thread:)

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carl mciver - 29 Oct 2005 16:36 GMT

Have him check the box for diodes. And obvious sources of smoke being
let out of the components.

| A friend of mine called me from 1500 miles away. He hooked the battery up
| backwards in his 87 Ford Ranger. He said smoke came out of a plastic box
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
|
| Al

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liteflyer 1 - 01 Nov 2005 03:25 GMT

He more than likely blew a fuseable link. These are in series from the
starter solenoid wiring point (useally were the cable from the bat
goes) to the fuse block. One of the uses of the fusable link is to
burn out if the bat voltage is backwards.
dave

> Have him check the box for diodes. And obvious sources of smoke being
>let out of the components.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>|
>| Al

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