Today I picked up six new gel cell batteries to put into a GEM car. I had contemplated replacing the original gels with lead acid batteries. Two of the six batteries are difficult to access so I knew that I wouldnt properly maintain water levels so I decided to go with another set of gels.
Normally I use a nut driver when tightening cables. I dont like using a ratchet because of the potential of having the handle of the ratchet make contact with the other post of the battery. Since these batteries were pretty expensive I wanted to make sure that I made excellent connections so I reached for my clicker torque wrench. In order to eliminate the shorting risk as described above I used an extension bar. Here is the wrench:
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Like I said above, it is difficult to access some of the batteries. You can see here that the GEM frame has a crossbar that is directly above some of the battery posts:
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So for some posts I needed to remove the extension bar from the torque wrench. You guessed it, I caused a short. I ended up putting 24V through the wrench. The wrench is now permanently welded to the 120 inch pounds setting! :lhmo:
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As you can imagine there were some sparks. The automotive style post melted, and the threaded post was glowing orange for 10 or 15 seconds after I removed the wrench. Here is what the battery looks like now:
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The threaded post will no longer accept a nut. Im not sure how much of that is (1) because there is dried splatter from the automotive style post that is now on the threads or (2) the threaded post itself changed shape because it got so hot.
So my questions are:
(1) Can I simply use a die and cut new threads on the post?
(2) If I do cut new threads and use that existing post, is it possible that I annealed the post such that I should torque it to a different spec than the original 120 inch-pounds?
(3) Would it be better for me to drill and tap into what is left of the automotive post and put on a new threaded post?
(4) Is there any way to test the battery to see if it has been damaged in such a way that it would damage the others if I use this one? After everything cooled I used a DVM and all six batteries measured 12.7 volts each.
All thoughts are welcomed and appreciated,
TJ
Normally I use a nut driver when tightening cables. I dont like using a ratchet because of the potential of having the handle of the ratchet make contact with the other post of the battery. Since these batteries were pretty expensive I wanted to make sure that I made excellent connections so I reached for my clicker torque wrench. In order to eliminate the shorting risk as described above I used an extension bar. Here is the wrench:
Like I said above, it is difficult to access some of the batteries. You can see here that the GEM frame has a crossbar that is directly above some of the battery posts:
So for some posts I needed to remove the extension bar from the torque wrench. You guessed it, I caused a short. I ended up putting 24V through the wrench. The wrench is now permanently welded to the 120 inch pounds setting! :lhmo:
As you can imagine there were some sparks. The automotive style post melted, and the threaded post was glowing orange for 10 or 15 seconds after I removed the wrench. Here is what the battery looks like now:
The threaded post will no longer accept a nut. Im not sure how much of that is (1) because there is dried splatter from the automotive style post that is now on the threads or (2) the threaded post itself changed shape because it got so hot.
So my questions are:
(1) Can I simply use a die and cut new threads on the post?
(2) If I do cut new threads and use that existing post, is it possible that I annealed the post such that I should torque it to a different spec than the original 120 inch-pounds?
(3) Would it be better for me to drill and tap into what is left of the automotive post and put on a new threaded post?
(4) Is there any way to test the battery to see if it has been damaged in such a way that it would damage the others if I use this one? After everything cooled I used a DVM and all six batteries measured 12.7 volts each.
All thoughts are welcomed and appreciated,
TJ