Anyone battery-savvy?? need help

How long, big was the arch? Perhaps check the fuse panel inside. I thought it was completely dead in the water but if you had some power than the main fuse should be fine

 

A jump start should clear some things up with the battery, right?

 

This logic makes me think it's probably damage to the battery then? If it indeed didn't involve fuses (short was from positive terminal straight to engine block)

 

Yea, if he ended up frying a cell in the battery from the arch you still should be able to jump it

 

Do you have another vehicle that you can get to the store and pick up a cheap volt meter? Certainly will help answer some questions, amd come in handy in the future.

 

... Had to leave the garage for a while...[/QUOTE]
Foe the bathroom?

 

First of all, please go buy a multi meter. Even a $20 one. You'll use it often to check tons of things around the house. Pull the fuses and with the ohm setting see if it has zero to barely ohms (nearly the same as when touching the meter's terminals to each other). The battery itself should be around 12.5 VDC (wearing out) to 12.7 (new and fully charged). With the engine running it should be about 13.0 to 14.3 depending on the had close to fully charged it is.

Have you jumped it from another vehicle to rule out the battery?

 

So many complicated things being said in here.

Just try to jump start it. I'll bet it will start with a jump and leave it running for a while to charge back up. Take it for a nice ride.

 

You can still jump start a vehicle with a bad battery. The truck will just run off the alternator once it starts.

 

so my charger does have "start" mode, which is 50 A/hr I think. Just tried it and got a terrible noise with zero turnover. Is a real jump different from these chargers?

 

Yeah but if you let it run for 30 mins and then turn it off you can try to start it again. Easiest first thing to do.

 

But do not disconnect the battery when running. You could fry your computer. It acts like a UPS to filter clean power to the ECU.

 

You have 2swithches for start on the charger...
60 amp and another switch says Start.

 

While doing this, run down to the store, leave the engine running, and pick up a volt meter. lol

 

Not on mine, it states the 50A setting as "start" mode

 

haha I'll get a volt meter when I can. It being Sunday night, and not having a working vehicle, I think I'll just drink some beer and educate myself a little more on the subject.

 

Takes up to 500 amps to start. Going to need to let the charger sit a while if you don't have jumper cables

 

BTW thanks for everyone's input. Sometimes I feel like a martyr - constantly effing things up so others can learn from my mistakes

 

yeah good call, that's why I've plugged her in to the charger and cracked a beer. Stress kills ya know

 

Unless the Stators are going in the alternator there won't be any problems. I mean I wouldn't recommend doing it for a long period of time but a few min is ok