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i came home yesterday to find a sulfur smell in the garage. It smelled ALOT like natural gas so we evacuated the house and called 9-1-1. Well they ALL showed up and shut off the electric, gas, etc.. the odor was still present after doing so so they checked the bateries on the vehicles and found that my trucks baterry had exploded?(I still don't quite understand).

they said it could just be a bad battery or it could have something to do with the wiring. perhaps the alternator is going bad? well I am getting a ride to work today so I need some suggestions on where to start with this problem. should i just get a new battery? run the wiring? change the alternator? This has NEVER happened before so I am not to sure it is the wiring, which narrows it down to the alternator or just a bad battery.

any and ALL suggestions will be appreciated
thnx
anthony

First of all, where did the acid splash and eat at? I hope you washed it all down really well . I would give the whole front end, inside and out, a baking soda wash.

Secondly, you need a new battery, (Obviously). Hook it up and run the truck with a battery/ charging system tester and see how much the alt. is putting out.
If your lucky it was just the battery, or the alternators regulator just went into full blast mode until the battery popped. That's probably what happened.
Good luck.

_________________
OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

I'd do some testing with an ohm-meter if you've got one handy. Test to see if you're getting continuity between the positive lead that connects to the battery and the ground. Odd for it to just blow spontaneously. I was driving an old tractor down at my parents farm years ago when I heard what sounded like a half of a stick of dynamite going off 3 feet from me. After I crawled back into my skin and apologized to the poor critters around there that probably heard my obscenities for miles, I came to find out that the battery had bounced up and made contact with the metal box it was in and exploded Completely ruined the shirt and pants I were wearing from the acid that shot everywhere. But oh man do those things make themselves known when they go out!

Wow that was close, I'm glad that you or your family was not near when that went off. Battery acid can be nasty stuff.

Anyway I had a battery explode in my Luv once. It was an older battery that was the non-maintenance type. I put it on a charger for a couple days(automatic charge) and the next day I got in and hit the starter then KA-BOOM. Good thing the hood was close when it went off my, garage and maybe me would have been a mess. The whole top half of the battery was gone.

This is what I think happened. The non-maintenance type battery does not have caps that can be "easily" removed to check the level of the electrolyte. Since it as an older battery I suspect the level was low maybe to the plates. This provided a larger volume of space where hydrogen gas (by product of the charging process) can collect. When I removed the charger I didn't provide sufficient time for the excess hydrogen gas to dissipate from the battery cells. So when I hit the starter there was a spark maybe in the battery or near it that ignited the explosion.

In your case one thing is for sure that your electrolyte level in the battery was low (like mines) since it was the hydrogen that was ignited. If the level was low your trucks charging circuit was running high aggravating the situation. Now what caused the spark to set this whole thing off? Since you or your family was nowhere near I assume the engine was not running. Something nearby caused it or if you have an active device in the vehicle that draws power with the ignition off could be the culprit.

Anyway after you get a battery in have someone check the charging circuit that it isn't over charging.

I hope this helps

kaneguy

my father and i worked on it today and found that the voltage regulator was bad. also found my rear breaks are hangin up.
grrr I hate my truck lol

So how long was the truck sittin? I mean had it been off for awhile or what? Kinda sounds like it was pushin back to much juice, but it would only do that if it were runnin.

It boiled over when it was running. but due to the area in which i smelled it i did not think nothing of it. in that area they are always workin on the sewers plus it went away after alittle bit. (hind-sight is always better than foresight)