Bump Starting a 6.9

[swampdigger]

It's late, I got a cold, and after taking some daytime decongestants, it feels like I drank a pot of coffee

Anyway, I was tossing this idea around in my head. Anyone ever bump start a 6.9 with NO electrical power at all? I was thinking if one were to tie back the shutoff solenoid, it should theoretically start? Might need a good hill to fight the compression, and a long one with no glow plugs, but possible still?

 

[Agnem]

You would need something to energize the solenoid. Even a pair of 9 volt transistor radio batteries in series would be enough to open it, and then you would only need one of them to hold it open. The hill would have to be very long and steep.

 

[sassyrel]

without heating the gps--not likely--but pull it a ways--possible---

 

[Mr_Roboto]

There's no "tying back" the solenoid, it's inside the IP. I've heard rumors of people retrofitting a mechanical shutoff from industrial equipment.

It's pretty rare to "completely" kill a battery. As long as you had some juice to feed the field current in the alternator, the alternator "should" build enough current to open the FSS. All that would take a pullstart or a good long hill.

 

[Agnem]

I had a Ranger that did that once. I jump started my 86, and then left it run to charge up. It died shortly afterwards. Seems I never got enough voltage to the voltage regulator for it to turn on the field.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Hmmm, I'm not smart enough to know how much voltage you need to feed the field side...

I would suspect that there were other issues with the Ranger though, since it would have had +/- 12 volts when you jumped it.

I've push started stuff too dead to crank and they charged OK once they were running.

 

[swampdigger]

I've been a long time Ranger guy: many times without jumper cables I've borrowed a good battery, started the truck, and while it was running, swap the battery out, and put the old one back in to charge.

I've since learned you can cause voltage spikes by suddenly.dis/re-connecting the battery, but I guess I got off lucky.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Yea I see people taking off terminals with the car running and fooling with jumper cables right against the battery. I kind of lean away in case the battery explodes.

My trucks have a quick connect for the jumper cables on the front bumper so that the final connection (and the spark) is well away from any batteries.

Battery explosions don't happen a lot, but it's one of those things that can ruin your life even if you aren't killed.

 

[oldmisterbill]

I have personally had 2 battery explosions 1 in a 3/4 tom army 4x4 in germany-scary i had a couple small acid burns,and a lot of holes in my uniform. AThe second was in my garage in MA. no serious damage but there was a peice of the battery case stuck in my celing ,I chose to leave it there as a reminder and a teaching lesson to those that take chances.
As I understand it the battery produces hydrogen gasses when being charged or discharged.The heavier the charge or discharg the more gasses produced. The first time was when a jumper cable was being hooked up to a truck that the battery had just been discharged while an attemt was being made to start it when it has water in the fuel9hence a heavy fresh discharge) The second time was when we were starting a truck with a fresh engine it was syill on the charger and was not being disconnect or connected ( I don't know for sure where the ignition source came from)but to me it proved thaqt the ignition source was very small.May be a lit cigarette-maybe some one trying to light a cigarette.maybe a spark from the starter solinoid or brushes??? maybe a stary leak in a plug wire??? who knows but syrly it was nor a big bunch of high amperage sparks.
One thing I am sure of under those 2 conditions mentioned earlier the chances are much more of an explosion.Also a warmer ambient temperature has a large effect on the situation too.The rotten egg smell from a battery is a good beware sign to be extra carefull.
Mr Bill

 

[Mr_Roboto]

I actually had one explode in my driveway. A "lady friend" was leaving, and when she went to go start her car the battery exploded. It blew the top right off of the battery. I assume that it had a bad connection inside and ignited internal gasses.

Just a thought that it can happen anytime......

 

[swampdigger]

Boy, I'm glad I haven't been darwinized yet! I was gonna tell the story behind that comment, but we'll leave it that.

Batteries are dangerious kids.

 

[EMD Diesel Power]

What is it with the 'Nam vets and having batteries blow up in thier faces? My Dad had one do that to him.... thankfully he had safety glasses on (everybody thought he was crazy) and he walked away.... more like dragged and thrown into the emergency shower. Uniform didnt survive the experience. I beleive he had some acid burns too, but nothing permenant.

And of course... like father, like son (sorta)..... I go and blow up a 74V battery in a locomotive while trying to start it.... got 3 seconds out of the starters and suddenly everything went dead (engine room lights and all). ooops. Battery in 3 major pieces and acid pouring out of the battery box. Trackpans took care of that! took me about 2 minutes to figure it out, saw the acid on my walkaround of the unit.

ended up leaving it for 1st shift to change out, boy we're they happy with me.

 

[TLBREWER]

I had a battery in my C-130 go on a "thermal runaway" once. Flight Engineer found it during pre-flight. It was HOT and very swelled. These are very big 24V batteries. Called out the fire department, put on acid gear (my airplane), pulled the battery and ran it out behind the blast fence. It took about 4 hours to cool down, but never exploded. That was a very fast run even carrying a 50+ lb battery. Probably not a smart thing to do, but had to be done. I couldn't see damaging my $38M dollar airplane for a battery.

Tom

 

[Mont91]

Had a car battery go off six inches under my chin. Old style timing light was the ignition source, also the source of the stiches in my chin. Beard caught most of the acid, talk about split ends. Timing light was ruined and I had hole in my beard for the stiches.

 

[akoldnav]

TL Brewer, as a tax payer thanks for going the extra mile to save a government asset. As a former C-130 crew member, I believe I would have believed that I could run faster with out the battery and made like a race horse.

Really, the happiest time period in my life was while I was navigating those critters all around the world. Too bad I got too old.

akoldnav