Battery mistake (1 Viewer)

[Neils4him]

So I have an FJ62 that needed a new battery. I went to NAPA and they looked it up and sent me on my way. As I went to install, I first attached the negative, then the positive - "SNAP!" Yep, they gave me the wrong battery with the Positive and Negative terminals reversed. So I figured I blew something... went got the correct battery. Good news, car starts, headlights turn on, windows go up and down, hazards and turn signals turn on, wipers go swish-swish, horn honks, but... big butt (at least that's how I feel or more like an ass.) These items are not working:
- radio
- power locks
- fuel gauge
- speedometer
- tail lights/side markers/dome light/dash lights
- heater blowers

- Fusible links at battery check out
- all fuses in the panel are intact
- all of the items that are not working do not have power going to the fuse panel

Is there a hidden fusible link?
Would it be the relays?

 

[pithicus]

have you checked the thermal breaker.? You will have 2 of them, one for the windows and the other for the blower motor.

 

[DEADSALT]

don’t be blaming napa

positive has a big ‘+’ - ‘RED’

negative has a big ‘-‘ - ‘BLACK’


yesterday,
on the way out of Canadian Tire
I noticed a youngster trying to repeatably spit sparks from under his car hood.

sure enough,
he was hooking up his new battery a$$ backwards.
Took the time to explain some basic electrical theory and got him on his way.

Incredulous, but here we are again less than a day later.

 

[Neils4him]

Not blaming NAPA... I'll own every bit. But, I am super grateful for your tips on how to fix the issues I'm having with my FJ62. I mean I was already feeling really wonderful, I didn't know I could actually feel better about the situation, but golly gee now I feel down right swell.

 

[3_puppies]

x2 on the breakers in the fuse box

top post batteries, the posts are different sizes, you either forced one on or had to over tighten one

it's a learning experience, pretty sure you won't do that again.

 

[Seth S]

don’t be blaming napa

positive has a big ‘+’ - ‘RED’

negative has a big ‘-‘ - ‘BLACK’


yesterday,
on the way out of Canadian Tire
I noticed a youngster trying to repeatably spit sparks from under his car hood.

sure enough,
he was hooking up his new battery a$$ backwards.
Took the time to explain some basic electrical theory and got him on his way.

Incredulous, but here we are again less than a day later.

Reminds me....years ago I was stopped at a truck stop in Northern Vermont late at night and I had pulled under the auto diesel island to check something on my car as the island was well lit and empty. An out of state car pulls up, guy gets out, and starts filling his car with fuel. It takes me a minute but I figure I better check....go over and ask him if his car is a diesel. It wasn't....he didn't know any better. Figure he put about 5 gallons of winter blend diesel in whatever his car was. I'm not sure whether he was able to fill the car with gas and drive through it or if he had other problems.

 

[FJ Silver]

Reminds me....years ago I was stopped at a truck stop in Northern Vermont late at night and I had pulled under the auto diesel island to check something on my car as the island was well lit and empty. An out of state car pulls up, guy gets out, and starts filling his car with fuel. It takes me a minute but I figure I better check....go over and ask him if his car is a diesel. It wasn't....he didn't know any better. Figure he put about 5 gallons of winter blend diesel in whatever his car was. I'm not sure whether he was able to fill the car with gas and drive through it or if he had other problems.

Nice...
Like when Oregon was allowed to pump their own fuel, and people filling up their gas tank with diesel since a green handle must mean it's better for the environment... True story.

 

[Seth S]

There is a gas station near me that only sells gas at their pumps but one of the handles is green. Was there with my sprinter one day (not getting fuel) and saw a sprinter at the pumps filling up. I went in the store and asked if they had diesel now and they said they did not. Then I wondered if he was filling fuel cans but didn’t look like it. So I walked over and said hello and asked him if his van was converted to a different engine. He said no just diesel. I pointed out the pump didn’t have diesel and he pointed to the green handle. Then he realized it was gas. He had filled the tank.

So he called a friend who was near who had some big fuel jugs. I showed him how to pull off the supply fuel line and. Run the pump. I sold him a couple gallons of diesel I had just picked up for my tractor. He text me later to thank me and let me know he was back underway

 

[FJ Silver]

Nice...
Like when Oregon was allowed to pump their own fuel, and people filling up their gas tank with diesel since a green handle must mean it's better for the environment... True story.

There is a gas station near me that only sells gas at their pumps but one of the handles is green. Was there with my sprinter one day (not getting fuel) and saw a sprinter at the pumps filling up. I went in the store and asked if they had diesel now and they said they did not. Then I wondered if he was filling fuel cans but didn’t look like it. So I walked over and said hello and asked him if his van was converted to a different engine. He said no just diesel. I pointed out the pump didn’t have diesel and he pointed to the green handle. Then he realized it was gas. He had filled the tank.

So he called a friend who was near who had some big fuel jugs. I showed him how to pull off the supply fuel line and. Run the pump. I sold him a couple gallons of diesel I had just picked up for my tractor. He text me later to thank me and let me know he was back underway

Oy.. good save.

 

[cps432]

Hey get this...
a “friend” of mine who used to be my “roommate” and was a black out drunk. Constantly hammered. And driving. Smashed into the back of my parked 05 mustang and lied about it as I stood there holding pieces of his 4Runner bumper that I pulled out from under my car... but that’s an other story...

One night he’s drunk driving home in the mountains and runs out of gas about a mile from the gas station. In his black out stooper he looks in the back of his truck and sees the nearly full handle of Wild Turkey and thinks “alcohol is race car fuel”.... so he dumps a handle of whiskey in his truck and it starts up and drives about 50 feet before seizing and totalling the engine.

He gets a new engine swapped in at the tune of nearly $10,000 and then smashes into the back of my pristine mustang about a month later. After I tell him it’s time to move out of my house he goes and gets his own apartment and a week later he rolls his 4Runner 11 times and walks away unscathed. The cops didn’t even breathalyze him. They didn’t bring him to the hospital. They took him to the gas station and dropped him off alone.... after rolling his truck 11 times on highway 25 in Denver...

This was the inspiration for me to sell the mustang and buy a Toyota Land Cruiser.

 

[JayDoc]

... a week later he rolls his 4Runner 11 times and walks away unscathed.

An old phrase used often in the ems/medical world: 'God loves fools and drunks.'
It's a real phenomenon of drunks surviving wrecks that they caused when the victims don't.

 

[cps432]

An old phrase used often in the ems/medical world: 'God loves fools and drunks.'
It's a real phenomenon of drunks surviving wrecks that they caused when the victims don't.

Yeah when you’re passed out like a rag doll your body goes with the flow. It’s the fear and tenseness that causes injury a lot of time. My best friend’s mother was an RN at the busiest ER in Atlanta for almost 40 years. One of the best pieces of driving advice she gave us was to turn into a rag doll and let it happen if you know it’s unavoidable.

I was on the road late one night comeing home from class. Parked at a red light. I see lights FLYING up behind me. Instinctively I gripped the wheel while remembering what she had said and I let go and took my foot off the brake. My car idled forward about a foot as the drunk driver behind me slammed on his brakes going 60-70?? He stopped inches away from my rear bumper. That advice saves us both that night. This a-hole didn’t learn from that near miss and he whipped around me going 80 on a dark mountain road. I was pulling my phone out to call the cops on him when out of the shadows the blue lights came rushing.... serendipity at its finest.

Moral of the story, blowing up your new battery and frying some breakers and relays is much preferable to drunk driving crashes and insanity.

 

[2mbb]

So I have an FJ62 that needed a new battery. I went to NAPA and they looked it up and sent me on my way. As I went to install, I first attached the negative, then the positive - "SNAP!" Yep, they gave me the wrong battery with the Positive and Negative terminals reversed. So I figured I blew something... went got the correct battery. Good news, car starts, headlights turn on, windows go up and down, hazards and turn signals turn on, wipers go swish-swish, horn honks, but... big butt (at least that's how I feel or more like an ass.) These items are not working:
- radio
- power locks
- fuel gauge
- speedometer
- tail lights/side markers/dome light/dash lights
- heater blowers

- Fusible links at battery check out
- all fuses in the panel are intact
- all of the items that are not working do not have power going to the fuse panel

Is there a hidden fusible link?
Would it be the relays?

I've never made any mistakes worth noting . But back to the OP question.

Short answer--go back and check your fusible links or replace them or temporarily jumper around them. Fuel gague, tail lights, dome lights dash lights and heater blower all use the same FL. The radio and power locks share another. I couldn't find that the speedometer needs electricity to work (tach does, though).

 

[2mbb]

Also, can someone explain what goes "snap" in this situation? In the 60 series most of the components are electrical not electronic--resistors, switches and capacitors (?) don't really care which way the electrons flow, do they? I know the Alternator has a diode, but what else? and if the key is turned off and other switches (headlights, etc.) generally in the off position, what is going to get fried or short out?

I think the situation is different if you are jump starting and get the jump battery or charger connected wrong.

Thanks!

 

[pithicus]

Reversing polarity on the alternator will be a dead short and fusible link will go snap . I think 2mbb is right. Check the fusibles again . They may look ok but be frazzled under the insulation. It.s also possible he fried a diode or 2 in the alternator.

 

[cps432]

Also, can someone explain what goes "snap" in this situation? In the 60 series most of the components are electrical not electronic--resistors, switches and capacitors (?) don't really care which way the electrons flow, do they? I know the Alternator has a diode, but what else? and if the key is turned off and other switches (headlights, etc.) generally in the off position, what is going to get fried or short out?

I think the situation is different if you are jump starting and get the jump battery or charger connected wrong.

Thanks!

I think there are some capacitors in various circuits that are directional. Some non directional caps can malfunction and become directional and visa versa. Some can become transmitters creating a signal on its own.

I had a roommate who was working for a government weapons manufacturing agency and his job was to very carefully go through the circuits of our vintage nuke arsenal and replace caps and resistors that had been fried or were waning in tolerance. He told a story once of a nuke arming itself somehow even though there were three physical breaks in the circuit in three different buildings. Something in the electrical line failed and the end of the signal chain was tricked into thinking it had an arm code. It was ready to throw the doors open and launch a missile at Russia. So they parked a 2 ton truck on the top of the silo with the brakes off so that it would fall in and wedge itself against the missile preventing it from launching.... president had to call russia and tell them and it was a big issue that got hushed up. After that they spent a lot of time and money making sure that wouldn’t happen again.

Caps can fail catastrophically.

 

[Lead Head]

I think it's also pertitent to mention the speedometer is entirely mechanical, with no electrical connection besides the light and a speed sensor. Hooking the battery up backwards would not affect the speedometer at all.

 

[pithicus]

Maybe the OP meant the tacho rather than speedo?
@ Neils4him Just be careful when replacing the fusible links. If you have shorted some diodes in the alternator , the link will blow again quickly.
Hopefully the diodes are ok.

​

 

[Neils4him]

I think it's also pertitent to mention the speedometer is entirely mechanical, with no electrical connection besides the light and a speed sensor. Hooking the battery up backwards would not affect the speedometer at all.

Sorry tach and Speedo work fine. Just no lights. I'm out of town for a week, so I'll come back when I get some time to check it out. I'll start with the fusible links.

 

[4Cruisers]

I've got a couple of spare fusible links - I can send you one for just a few dollars more than shipping if you find out that's the culprit.