Pants shitting moment (got zapped changing plugs, now it wont start)

Well, i was changing my spark plugs today, and i was using my really fucking nice torque wrench, when i came down to far torqueing the middle plug on the left side of my 6 cylinder. Sure enough, it touched the positive terminal and i got zapped.

I luckily was pushing it with two fingers so release was easy when i got zapped, but i left if for a second to figure out the situation. thats when i noticed the torque wrench was still touching the terminal and it started to look like a weld was happening on the torque wrench handle

I hit it off of there and layed down for a minute.

I came back out, finished up changing plugs, and now the electrical system doesnt work. Its dead when i put my key in.

Where the hell should i begin trying to diagnose the electrical problem?

 

Get the battery checked...Short to ground could drain it.

 

x2 on the battery hopefully its just dead

 

Whoa, so you hit the positive terminal on the battery with your torque wrench? Did you have the neg terminal disconnected?

I found one instance of this online but no real answer. I'd start by checking the battery - do your lights work, or any electrical at all? If you maintained the contact for a few minutes you could have drained your battery. Might try jumping it - it'd be the cheapest place to start.

Good luck - subbed for the results.

 

Yea I bet its totally dead, my cordless drill batteries in the case would get a loose screw stuck in them and heat the screw up so damn hot it would stick into the plastic forever lol Batteries still work fine to this day!! Yay pre-b&k dewaults!

 

Lol... sorry couldn't help muhself

bet you won't do that again

 

My bet is the battery is dead or damaged. Even if you caused a more sever problem you should still get something.

 

Definitely start with a battery, but a buddy just did this on his Jeep and it ended up needing a whole new ECU. Hopefully that's not your case.

Always disconnect the battery when doing stuff like this!

 

Okay, mystery solved (now i feel like an idiot, times 2)

The truck was dead, completely. No interior lights, chime, or ignition

Checked engine bay fuses (good)
Checked cabin fuses (good)
Checked for melted cables (good)
Checked battery terminals (not good)

Turned out, when i smacked my torque wrench away from the battery, I managed to knock the positive battery terminal clamp *slightly* (i mean really fucking slightly) and it couldnt maintain a circuit.

I drove over to Napa, and they checked the battery. Its just fine


However, my Snap On torque wrench handle looks like dog shit. Its got a couple good contact points, and a ark point at the top where it discharged against a cable holder on the plennum

 

Phew!

 

Yup - best possible outcome! Lucky guy.

 

Think I'd be sending in the torque wrench to get it checked and calibrated again before I trusted it on important torque settings. Who knows. Just to be on the safe side.

Glad you found what it was and it was not more serious!

 

Disconnecting the battery would have made no difference unless he disconnected it and removed it from the truck... Most cables have a cover for the positive terminal so something like this can't happen. Personally, I wouldn't disconnect the battery just to swap spark plugs either. Just gotta watch where you put your tools.

 

Sorry to hit you up on this, but you are wrong. If you disconnect the ground cable and place it safely away from the ground terminal of the battery, no amount of touching the positive terminal with a wrench or any other object would allow it to short. When you disconnect the ground cable, you remove the battery's ground circuit. It is not necessary to remove the entire battery. That being said, remember to disconnect the GROUND side, not the positive side.

 

Oh Snap(on) - now I wanna know who's right.

 

So you're telling me that if you disconnect the battery's ground, then run a wire from the battery's positive terminal to the engine block, nothing will happen? Cause you're essentially connecting the battery to a ground... I'm 100% sure cause I've never done it, but I'm not convinced it's a safe thing to do.

I'm with Polymerhead, I want answers dammit!

(plus we need to keep him talking so we can oogle his sig)

 

i think your wrong..... haha.

 

OK, so when you do electrical work on a car, do you disconnect the positive or negative terminal? I unhook the positive and leave the negative. You're saying I can leave the positive and unhook the negative and it's the same thing?

My first rule is to remove the power source, screw the ground... if there's no juice, grounding becomes irrelevant.

 

I guess to test you would disconnect the battery ground and put a meter between the pos term and an engine or body ground. Might need the battery ground reference to make the 12V potential

 

Alright, who's gonna be the guinea pig?

FWIW, I'm beginning to think BamaToy is correct... Otherwise, you could discharge a AA battery by putting it positive side down on a piece of metal but instead it doesn't discharge unless the negative is grounded or it makes a loop.