1954 Chevy Belair 235....Okay I have almost finished my 12v conversion (Haven't added the reducer for the heater blower motor or the horn relay yet) and I went to hook up my 12v battery and I am getting lots of spark and smoke??? The battery cables are hooked up right. The ignition switch is not on. Not sure whats going on...could it be a bad battery? Battery is currently reading at about 12volts...(could use a little charge, but that should cause a spark.) It worked fine a couple days ago.
Hard to say what is wrong, but that IS NOT a problem with the battery. To find the problem begin by disconnecting "things" one at a time, reconnecting the battery each time until the issue is located... Just a place to start.
FYI. You don't need a reducer for the horn. It'll just be nice and loud. It's a good idea to put one in for the heater motor although it will last for years on 12v. Becareful where you mount the reducers as they can get extremly hot.
Do you have fuses? If you don't you'll find the problem soon enough. Something is grounded out, and it will either cost money or time to find it. I prefer to disconnect everything, start hooking up accessories one at a time.
The car still has in line fuses, could a blown fuse cause this issue? Thanks for the help, I am not the grestest of electricians..
You say "lots of sparks and smoke???". Exactly where are the sparks and smoke...at the battery, at the heater motor, or somewhere else? All sorts of possibilities and potential causes here. Motor could be shorted to ground. Something is "on" or grounded (shorted ?), or mis-wired to cause EXCESSIVE current flow, which is usually associated with "lots of sparks and smoke". Where are your smoke and sparks occuring? DD
Listen Up NO a blown fuse WILL NOT cause it! A blown fuse transfers NO POWER, so NO spark....Just my professional opinion from 38yrs doin this car thing...
The sparks etc are a sign of a large draw or short, my bet being a short Test the battery to see if you didn't reverse charge it somehow. Last time I had problems sparks/flashes etc I had reverse charged the battery. Caused a whole lot of headache. Beyond that I would start checking anything that you worked on during the 12v conversion.
Yea I saw that one one time.... it "torched" all it's late model electronic ignition components but did not hurt anything else. Things like light bulbs (incandescent type) and starter motors don't care how the battery is charged, they work fine and the turn the same direction no matter to the polarity...
Hey Guys, thanks for all the tips...turns out after re-tracing my steps I ditched the voltage regualtor when I switched to 12v...however I attached the brown and red wires to the firewall panel...once I unhooked them...WA-LAH!! Everything worked, lights and all. The motor even turned...success, now I just need to time it again...tomorrows project
Also , a good rule is if you have a blown fuse ( element in fuse is just popped) your problem is most likely in the circuit . When you have a blown fuse that has a very hot pop ( in other words lots of black spot) . It is most likely a short to ground.
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