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Moseso

Moseso

Jedi Knight
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Part one, of two. Tomorrow, part 2, "What I did to the car." Today, part 1. "What I did to myself." :cryin:

In order to remove the windscreen washer jets, I first removed the cubby box. Then I Reached in with a deep socket to loosen the washer jet. I heard a little "snap," and my wrist began to hurt like crazy. I yanked my hand back out of there and realized that the cause of the pain was still with me. I wear a Medic Alert bracelet. It had contacted the 12-volt feed on the back of my cigarette lighter, and the case too, I think. Two of the links were actually lightly welded together, and the the bracelet was still freakin" HOT. I kept trying to blow on it, keep it moving, get it away from my skin for about a minute. Lots of "Ow... OOooWWW... Hey! OWWWW!.. Oooohh.

Lessons learned:
1) I think the lighter deserves a fuse. That would be a good practice. I just didn't have one when I threw it in, and thought I could get away with it.
2) I have a lovely battery disconnect switch. No muss, no fuss, no bother -- just twist the knob! Next time I'm working on the car, I think I'll do that...
 

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Moseso said:
Lessons learned:
1) I think the lighter deserves a fuse. That would be a good practice. I just didn't have one when I threw it in, and thought I could get away with it.
2) I have a lovely battery disconnect switch. No muss, no fuss, no bother -- just twist the knob! Next time I'm working on the car, I think I'll do that...
Click to expand...

And then there's the age-old...

3) remove jewelry before commencing work on car? (lesson learned years ago in a somewhat similar fashion....)
 
This thing is NOT easy to remove/replace. A design feature, actually. It's supposed to still be there, in spite of whatever trauma has rendered me unconscious. I wear it 24/7/365 -- in the shower, to bed -- always. Were it a mere decoration, I would do that.
 
I have worked in the eletrical industry all my life. I have tapped into 480volts live. And still work stuff live on a regular basis.
On the other hand I wouldn't even consider working on my Spitfire without first disconnecting the battery. The day after I brought my car home I bought a quick disconnect for the battery. Too much of the car's wiring is unfused and under the right conditions you can do a lot of damage up to and including blowing up a battery.
Leave the medic alert on and the power off.
 
WOW, lesson learned eh! Glad it wasn't worse. I bought one of those battery disconnect switches guess I had better get it in and learn how and when to use it.

Dick
 
yep, just cuz it's relativly low voltage....

stories abound in my industry of people becoming the filament.

Three in one antibiotic ointment and light covering.

Don't ask me how I know.
 
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