my rant on things electric!

[purple gas]

Electicity is like sooo stupid... First everything has to hooked up just right.. one little break in a wire, or one little short and it don't work. everything has to be all hooked up nice, right from the power source throught a stupid switch, any little bad connection and it won't work..then you have to have it grounded,, isn't enough to get the power there,, can't it find it's own damn way back to the battery??? Makes me wish Einstein or Bill Gates or whoever never invented it.. and why do we even need brake/ signal lights anyways,,, stupid laws.. if people payed attention they'd see where we were going,, 1/2 the people don't signal anyways,,,,,,ahhhhhhh,,, I feel better now.. one good thing 'bout electric,, it makes refigeration possible,, which means cold beer,, which makes it all almost tolerable.... almost

[chickenwing]

lol. I admit it can be a pain if ur not detail oriented.

[67cst]

i hear ya man, lucky for me my sisters fiancee is and electrical engineer, now when i have problems he can locate the source pretty damn fast

[cdowns]

yeah ,if people paid attention when they were hooking up wires lights and stuff would work

[FRENCHBLUE72]

I hear ya I am going through the same problem's with my 69 I just wanted to through it together and sell it but that would of been too easy ....Damn that previous owner..

[N2TRUX]

How are you at plumbing? If your any good at plumbing, you can wire things up with out all the frustrations. Just look at it like hot and cold water lines.....

[Longhorn Man]

purple...tell us how you really feel.
I normally don't have too many problems with electrical stuff. I normally have to reference what guage wire to use...or just guess that this bigger wire will do, (hasn't failed me yet) and I have to reference when making a harness from scratch for a relay...but it is all real simple.
If you learn to read schematics things become a little more simplified. And since the projects we are on (at least most of our truck projects) you only need to learn the basics...don't need to worry about wires that can only carry milliamps and resistors and everything to relays...ect.

[purple gas]

Plumbing, schematics, milliamps ..Electrical engeneers? Don't bore me with logic. All I want if for that damn light to come on.. Hell. I can't even blame a previous owner. My wiring is all factory. I'm just kiddin around boys

[68w/sbc406]

i just had to pay to have a battery drain figured out. a wire had gotten hot and melted the insulation and melted the insulation of a nother wire and thus a battery drain. good thing it only took them 1/2 hour to figure out. they showed me what was wrong and i fixed it. only took me 1 hour to fix and 37.50 at the electrical shop. no headach either

[Tx Firefighter]

A few hours learning Ohm's Law and how to read a schematic will make a huge difference in your frustration. You might spend a night or two reading up on it. I'm sure Google would turn up some good sights.

I had a one semester class in coollege just dealing with electrical theory and basic wiring. It sucked, sitting through class, but it makes you a ruler when an electrical gremlin pops up.

[wedgemon]

Electrical wiring is like a piping system. The joints and ends need to be completely seal up (connected) or there are leaks.

A well designed eletrical systems will allow for the pemanent introduction of smoke. Once this system has been breached - POOF!! there's smoke. So the user must find the leak in the wiring and seal the offending cable and reapply the smoke. If all possible leaks are sealed - NO SMOKE.

We've all sen this smoke. Comes from stereo equipment, starters, batteries, even household appliances! Smoke systems come, primarily in 12v DC or 110v AC. But can be anywhere from AAA to megawatts!

So, to summarize - Contain The Smoke. And all your electricity will flow!

[68C15]

there is times & situations when current will find its own way back. its called a floating ground or backfeeding. ever have a bad connection on the taillight bulb-socket housing? then before you know it the marker lights come on when you step on the brakes unless you have the turn signals on.
can you tell I love electricity?
its kind of like drinking a 12 pack of your favorite barley pop. what goes in must come out. both transactions must happen freely without restrictions otherwise trouble will follow.
just be happy you dont need to know about Zener doides or what wattage resistor to use for a circuit.

[chickenwing]

Originally Posted by 68w/sbc406

i just had to pay to have a battery drain figured out. a wire had gotten hot and melted the insulation and melted the insulation of a nother wire and thus a battery drain. good thing it only took them 1/2 hour to figure out. they showed me what was wrong and i fixed it. only took me 1 hour to fix and 37.50 at the electrical shop. no headach either

You have a very nice shop there. Spark chasers out here get a 3 hour minimum.

[chickenwing]

TX. Sat through my electrical theory class in the good ol USAF. I still have a hard time with the thought that current flows from negative to positive. Wonder how many people will tell me that is bs.

[68w/sbc406]

Originally Posted by chickenwing

You have a very nice shop there. Spark chasers out here get a 3 hour minimum.

kinda pist me off being i am an electrical apprentice. but its my daily driver and i needed it taken care of.

[Longhorn Man]

Originally Posted by chickenwing

TX. Sat through my electrical theory class in the good ol USAF. I still have a hard time with the thought that current flows from negative to positive. Wonder how many people will tell me that is bs.

They told me that in school in the army too....I still don't know if it is acurate, and in reality, it doesn't really matter.

[68w/sbc406]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Man

They told me that in school in the army too....I still don't know if it is acurate, and in reality, it doesn't really matter.

that is true in a DC system but not true when it comes to your house (AC)

[chickenwing]

Agreed and agreed.

[Brainchild]

Originally Posted by 68C15

there is times & situations when current will find its own way back. its called a floating ground or backfeeding. ever have a bad connection on the taillight bulb-socket housing? then before you know it the marker lights come on when you step on the brakes unless you have the turn signals on.
can you tell I love electricity?

lol I was there last week.I hate wiring,but it has to done,otherwise your truck is just another yard ornament.So grab the tester and the tape,and whistle while you work

[Rollie396]

lol great vent purple gas!I hate wiring too and am not lookin forward to rewiring when the time comes

[Don R. Dodson]

Originally Posted by Rollie396

lol great vent purple gas!I hate wiring too and am not lookin forward to rewiring when the time comes

I am just the opposite. I had much rather work on electrical problems than get in there with the grease and rusty bolts and weight related items such as the motor and transmission and rear end stuff. Of course being an electronics technician has it's advantages. Just think what the modern day mechanic has to contend with. He has to be able to understand the computerized stuff and sensors that are everywhere on the modern day cars that informs the computer what is going on. No sensor reading from the limited slip differential and you get a warning with one idiot light, "Check Engine". Then you need a computer to interpret the car computer.

~ Don ~

[68C15]

the neg-pos current flow has to do with the molecular structure of plates in the batt.
by the way, did you know how many electrons it takes to make 1 volt?
1,200,000,000,000

[Don R. Dodson]

Originally Posted by 68C15

the neg-pos current flow has to do with the molecular structure of plates in the batt.

Nope! Negative to positive has to do with Valence bands of an electron. You have negative to positive in ALL electrical circuits, and even AC circuits as AC is a sign wave that goes negative with 180 degrees of the cycle and positive on the other part of the cycle, and each cycle is looking for the other side of the path for current to flow. When the negative side of the cycle occurs, it is more negative than the reference line, and current flows from the more negative side to the reference line (That is where the alternating current comes into play) In my 1967 Dodge Charger there is a power pack that changes 12 volts DC to 230 Volts AC at 250 cycles per second and the power pack runs the Electrolumanence dash guages, so AC is also involved in classic cars technology. And understand that your TV set also has current flow from negative to positive, and there is no battery with plates involved with a TV set.

~ Don ~

[Southpa]

Ya forgot to mention the 10 ft. ground rod! Ooops sorry, thats for houses!

Quite a while back I had battery draining problems. Was only reading 10V across the battery while running, thats no good. So I realized I had a ground leak somewhere. I got my buddy to help me troubleshoot and we couldn't find the source. There is always a quick and dirty fix for everything. We resorted to a large wire (actually a pair) going directly from the alt to the pos. battery pole. Everything works fine and that was about 6 yrs ago.

[68w/sbc406]

Originally Posted by Southpa

Ya forgot to mention the 10 ft. ground rod!

those ground rods are fun to drive into the rock infested ground, and then sometimes they come poking back out.