mblue240
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 22, 2007
- Location
- Portland, Oregon
Nice, I wished my father did something like that , but NOOO!!!
My dad taught me plenty of handyman stuff along the way. I learned a lot about sweat equity from him. He never modified or did major repairs on a car though, so I learned (and continue to do so) as I went.
His Mom showed up a few weeks ago with a chunk missing out of the sidewall in her tire. i told her she wasn't taking the 2hr drive home with my kid in the car, so she needed to put on the spare. She promptly asked for help, being the useless millennial she is. So I told mini-me to round up the tools and get to work. I hope she felt silly watching her 12 year old son come to her rescue.
One of my favorite eye-rolling stories I heard from a guy who actually attended the wealthy high school where it happened? a kid was given a shiny brand new Camaro for his 16th birthday, and while showing off, he managed to flip it over in the school parking lot on his third day of ownership. As punishment? Daddy didn't give him another brand new Camaro until he turned 17.
I went to a similar school. Always grumbled that my parents couldn't give me everything I wanted. now I'm grown and thank them for everything they worked their ass off to give us. All 3 of my kids are learning the same lessons and so far are taking it much better than I ever did.
I trust your brain can stitch together the above examples I cherry-picked? I hope it's not too late to suggest disconnecting the battery until you figure it out. A charging system active while the key is out is awfully close to a fire waiting to happen. Might not be so catastrophic, but the melted charge wire already gives you a clue... you'll be teaching the young-un about fusible links, yes? And if you're going with the delightful overkill of a 1/0 cable, you'll want a mega fuse in there also.
You can test the battery with a simple voltmeter. 12.6 is nominal "full" when it's been at rest for a while. Of course there are much more exhaustive tests while under load, but this gives a quick and dirty baseline.
Yup, battery got unplugged right away. With a couple holiday breaks coming up we should have time to trace wires and see what we come up with. I want to dig in and fix it, but I have to remind myself it's his project.
The 1/0 wire is what I had on hand. I learned Pick n Pull charges the same for all battery cables, so you have to find a BMW with a trunk mounted battery and on a 50% off day it costs about $3 for 10ft of 1/0 wire and since it runs through the cabin it looks brand new. The clerks even know the loop hole and laugh when I bring it up.