I just fixed the leak on my 77 goldwing this least weekend.theleft side was leaking where the muffler and the headers meet so I welded a new pipe onto the muffler and clamped it to the header. once it was done i ran the bike to see how it sounded and see if it leaked which it didn't so i was happy. I then decided it would look nicer if i ground the thred off on the U bolts that was past the nuts.as i ground the U bolts i heard a loud bang, come to find out the sparks from the grinding must have hit the vent tube (which I didn't think about before hand) and blew the corner out of the batterie. Good thing the cover was on and it didn't do me any harm so next timeI will remove the batterie all togeather. now that the leek is gone and i re timed it,it runs better then it ever has.
You must neutralize any acid that got out of the battery. Lots of water and Baking Soda. It will corrode the frame if it gets on it. including any weld points that come to corners, bends, or butts. Check it all really good. Glad it didn't get on you. I had that happen once on an older bike a month latter I had all this corrosion. :shock:
I might add, a battery exploded in my Power Wagon about 8 months ago. My brother was driving it at the time and had turned it off and got out was walking across the street and it went, said it sounded like a mortar round had gone off, he dropped, people were coming out of offices, said you could see a vapor cloud rising from the hood. It had pealed the paint right off the fender. The whole top blew off the battery. To this day, I always ware safety glasses while working around batteries.
1960 it was, in Korea. I was assigned to the motor pool of Hog & Hog Company as a deuce-and-a-half driver (U.S.Army). We were out on field manuvers for a few days, and my truck wouldn't start one morning. I popped the hood, climbed on up there, and with a piece of that metal banding strap I found in the dirt, I proceeded to try to arch the two battery terminals on one of the two batteries (24 volt system...I was like, 17 or 18 years old) to see if it was dead. Yup, it blew up and I landed on the ground on my butt. :shock:
Lucky none of the acid got in my eyes...my fatigues were fairly well shot by the next day, and I had some brown (acid burn) spots on my one hand and face...never did THAT again...(the kid CAN learn!)
(Turned out the batteries were OK, the starter was shot) :action:
Glad you are ok. Batteries contain sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid will actually get stronger as you start to dilute it. I learned this in a safety class I had to take before I installed some stainless steel sulfuric acid lines. So listen to SpiderBob and nuetralize that acid like there is no tomorrow and baking soda in water is the best way. A bottle of Coke works well too and it will flow the same route as the original spill and nuetralize as it goes.
I once saw a pickup hood with a hole in it from where a "dead" battery was being boosted.
Luckily, the guy put the cables on the dead battery first, but when he jumped the good battery, the cables on the dead battery arced real bad and it blew up and went thru the hood.
That is unfortunately why so many people ignore all the safety warnings they have been taught over the years. You usually will get away with it. (The key word being "usually") But do it enough, and it could eventually catch up with you.
Yup when i was a kid many moons ago i took off the battery caps off my daddy's tractor and struck a match to see what was in it. Well i bet you'll never guess what happened.
Wellllllll i never did that again i promise you that.
As part of my previous job, i was involved in topping up lead acid batteries for emergency lighting circuits, some of these batteries are the same size as a car battery but only one cell, a colleague of mine switched off the mains to the batteries while i was in front of one and it exploded about 18 inches away from my face, fortuantley i was unhurt, it was noted that a lot of the batteries were dry or well down on fluid, this means a lot more gas trapped inside the batteries, when the batteries were disconnected from the mains an arc was made, so a good practice would be to top up the batteries before disconnecting them. This also releases the trapped gases.
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