welding and disconnecting battery?

[slickrock]

I always just pulled the cables on my cruiser as I had nothing that would reset itself whenever I was welding on it. I have to do the exhaust on my 97 f150 and I don't want to reset everything when I disconnect the battery. Can I just disconnect the ground on the battery or do I need to do both for saftey and not frying the computer?

Thanks

 

[2badfjs]

i just dis the ground.
don't want to fry another battery

 

[Cruiserdrew]

I would completely disconnect the battery-how bad can that be, since batteries get replaced all the time.

The ONE time I welded on my 80, I disconnected both batteries and kept the ground electrode within inches of where I was working. I would guess that frying those computers would be expensive and not worth the risk of keeping things connected.

 

[Ian Rogers]

i dont disconnect any thing on the 40 and have hade no problems... this is how i was told to do it when i was learning, also you can weld on a diesel tank full, 1/2 way, empty as long as the cap is off

 

[Mark W]

There is no difference in disconnecting just the pos or neg, or disconnecting both. Disconneted is disconnected. If both terminals are not hooked up it's...disconnected.

Jr. High science class.


I have never had or known anyone else who has actually had a problem from welding on a rig with the battery still connected. Just keep you ground clamp near whatever you are welding on. That's alwasy a good idea anyway. If yopu are welding on the exhaust, put the ground on the exhaust, not on the boddy or frame.


Mark...

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Luke Porter uses this Snap-On thing that connects to the battery while welding and supposedly takes away the risk to the electronics. I have no idea what it actually does, but it is much simpler than true disconnection.

 

[RavenTai]

I kept the ground electrode within inches of where I was working.

This is more important than the battery, disconnect the battery if you want no harm in doing so but every electrical device in the truck is still attached to ground,


the main thing that keeps the electronics safe is that everything is happening on the ground side, the voltage across all the devices is still 12V from the battery, or no volts if disconnected, and they are out of the welding circuit, that is unless you touch the welding electrode to any part of the positive supply, then that voltage will try to get to ground through electrical devices destroying them.

 

[slickrock]

So in other words, it doesn't really matter if I disconnect the battery. I will not cook anythign as long as I place the ground clamp as close as possible to the area being welded and weld away. Just make sure for some crazy reason I don't touch some 12v hot source with the rod.

 

[RavenTai]

exactly