The 235 runs, but the battery BLEW UP!!!

Well I got her running,The '47 actually runs pretty damn good!!! It was a bad ballast resistor!!! But anyway, there she is running, I have a smile on my face, I grab another beer, I sit down and listen to her puuuuur, and then...BOOM the top of the battery FLYS off, the inside of it is all broken up and pieces of plastic are on the ground and there is a puddle of acid on the floor near the side of the battery, HONESTLY I don't care about the battery, BUT, I don't want it to happen again!!! What the HELL happened????? I have NEVER experienced this before! the battery was hooked up to the starter, ground and ballast resister ONLY! NOT hooked up to the charging system, NOT goin thru ANY wires in the car at all. I jumped the starter by a screwdriver, as it wasn't even hooked up to the ignition switch! I am covered (well actually I am here after a shower) in battery acid spray, the case is cracked, I just don't get it??? Any ideas?????

 

I do know this happened once years ago with my dad's '70 Pontiac after a long time in storage, the side of the battery just popped, no warning, acid all over. Was it an old battery? I think sometimes it just happens, although it's possible you got a hydrogen build-up or the vents were plugged somehow and that led to it popping.

On my '50 there is a starter button; it has a 12V motor and electrical but the rest was never converted, so to run it involves a jumper from battery to coil and then crank it with the button. I'd never try to start one any other way than from outside of the engine compartment.

Just for fun you should hose it down good with a garden hose and take it in to Wal-mart as a core.

 

Hydrogen explosion.The battery was working overtime and was probably bubbling flat out while the engine was running ( no charge going in ?) .Those bubbles are hydrogen gas ,it's entirely possible you had a bad connection on the battery terminal and this ignited the gas or did you have the exhaust disconnected?. Either way,any small spark will ignite it.
Your clothes will now start falling apart and you are damn lucky you weren't splashed in the face.I saw a guy almost blinded once when he was disconnecting a battery charger and another battery on the rack,NOT the one he was charging,Blew up spraying him in electrolite.
Vented or not,batteries are dangerous !.

 

The car needs a solution of arm&hammer baking soda mixed in a bucket and poured over everything. Then take the box(s) and powder the car snow. This will neutralize the acid. Water does nothing. That stuff is breaking frame (like forever) if you get my drift. Snow and now!!!!

Then leave whatever wiring is there. You need to find either a high output rate that the regulator is not sending to ground but all that engine spin of A/C into the battery and now the battery is just a fast heat sink is my guess?
The only way to tell if the charging is the problem is to read your wiring trace (do not touch your/their wire work). I'd hate to go through a fast check if that battery cooked that quick. I am just going by an over charge variable and you can either throw parts at it to set the battery up and check. But, to go through all that snow job and the white driveway is a mess now already. So, the only thing I can think of is to run, "total loss" as if you were super light racer w/out wire harness and run a battery directly to dist and short the starter to crank it over (to initially start it than push it) and let the new battery sit on the floor with a long wire running the engine. Now you go to the battery leads and read the input to the battery posts. If it's a 6v and it's hammering 8 or 9 on the spin up, then the alt/gen is shooting it all in. If 12v, I am wrong with the 6v so for argument sake, the 12v is spiking 15, 16v's to a 12v battery = BOOM!!!

 

Charging system wasn't hooked up. Good battery out of my running car, I did have safety glasses on, (always do around battries), and the whole front sheet metal from firewall forward is off the car. All wiring, radiator, etc. So everything is safe, I wasn't going to run it long, I just wanted to get it going, so wasn't worried about overheating, or charging. Clothes are in the garbage, 'cause I know they will fall apart, so I am thinking it is the hydrogen build up bubbling off, as I was cranking and cranking quite a bit to get the motor running. I didn't realize that would happen, I now know NOT to do that! Thanks for the info...Ken