M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
DISCUSSION => Electrical => Topic started by: kramerica5000 on December 30, 2007, 12:30:21 PM
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So I was hooking up a trickle charger to my battery, and I noticed that the cable connected to the negative post is red (and its connected to the chassis). And the positive cable is black. Aren't these reversed ... or am I confused?
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Both of mine are black. The ground cable was probably replaced along the way.
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Damn, I had the battery charger hooked up the wrong way (I just went by the colors). I wonder if that did any damage?
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FWIW at this point, that 'red' cable is really the German version of brown, which they use for ground. Unless yours is bright red...
It is certainly possible that you may have done some damage - how long was it hooked up? Have you tried it to see if it still works?
You are wearing goggles or some sort of eye protection while you do this, right?
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Everything seems to work fine. Luckily the charger has an overload state where it shuts itself off, so it was probably only on for a few seconds. I'd hate to imagine what would have happened otherwise.
My negative cable is definitely red. Looking closely it does have a "-" indicator, but all I saw was red (no pun intended). I've never seen the colors reversed like that. Seems a bit unsafe. I thought black and red were the universal - and +. If mine were black and black I would have at least taken a closer look, but having them reversed like that is a recipe for an accident. Weird.
FWIW at this point, that 'red' cable is really the German version of brown, which they use for ground. Unless yours is bright red...
It is certainly possible that you may have done some damage - how long was it hooked up? Have you tried it to see if it still works?
You are wearing goggles or some sort of eye protection while you do this, right?
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I never go by color alone - had a buddy of mine explode a battery in his face once by hooking it up backwards. Someone in the past had gotten cables that fit from Sears or the like and hadn't paid attention to what color went where. Fortunately, he had goggles on and was leaning away, so minor flesh wounds but nothing else.
The positive post is physically larger than the negative.
On wire colors - I had a '76 Scout II once, and the ammeter was acting a little funny - didn't seem to be indicating the charge I knew the battery was getting. So I popped the cluster off. At some point in the past, someone had done a very thorough job of rewiring the entire cluster. Unfortunately, they must've gotten a good deal on wire, because EVERY SINGLE WIRE was green - the whole cluster. I buttoned it back up and sold the truck (it had other issues as well, this was the straw that broke my back).
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because those zaney Germans love to throw a curveball at us and see what happens.
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I had an overcharged battery blow up on me once. I was standing with one foot on the ground and the other in the car on the gas pedal. When I turned the key on I heard a loud bang like a small pistol shot. I went to the front and looked down into all the cells and plates of the battery. The complete top was blown off. Just as I thought, "Damn" all these little pieces of plastic started coming down. Safety goggles - hah!
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it is a brownish red... mine is the same way...
Confused me the first time I looked at it.. I was lucky I caught the odd colors, as I was about the jump start the car!
JMH