Dangerous THEN & NOW!

[Danno]

When i was 19 and came back from living in New Zealand the first time i was low on funds we bought a house at the time here and every penny went on mortgage and just surviving really, i bought a Russian ural 650 for £30, it needed a battery a pair of tyres and some fragile wiring sorting out. I got it running for £50 and on the road for a year for £60. It had a Braided copper earth lead that was very prone to oxidization it turned a pale insipid green verdigris and the braids of copper ( that's even if it was copper) just kind of dissolved and i ended up blowing every bulb on the bike one night. Put a earth lead off a ford car on it and never had another issue. Strange stuff the Russians used at times.

I call that green poof. I have encountered way too much in Ohio. It is also a semiconductor which has some comical diagnosis. Horse trailers were fun. The salt and horse urine corroded eveythind. Oxide galore! Electrics and chassis..everthing!

I always installed my power wires to the power distrabution box on vehicles at work because if you looked at the battery terminals... they magically crumbled.

Somebody forgot to dip that ural ground cable in whale fat or fish oil. Ha...electrolytes are everywhere! The stainless earth cables oxide also in the north. The old timers would keep cars with leaky valve covers because of the corrosion. Almost sounds as some loosened the valve cover bolts on the first day. My friend had a high mileage camry with a massive oil leak. When he finally fixed the leak years later and washed the car 30 times..he had the nicest camry around. This why leaky harleys never die. The other bikes corrode away.

 

[Amos Malone]

A loose battery terminal coming undone while going through thick exotic car show traffic. Yep, that happened right when all the cameras and attention were in my direction for a Pagani Zonda driver doing a rolling burnout in front of the cops. Yes, I looked like a jackass for a few moments. The Ducati guys came over and lent a hand and kept traffic flowing slowly by me. Handled in a matter of minutes with some laughs on my part.

I had a battery cable come loose once from a terminal clamp. I was driving (too fast) on a side of a mountain in a pitch dark when all lights went off, and the engine died. Definitely a near brown pants moment. Fixed the loose battery cable with a shoelace by the light of a Zippo and made it home in one piece.

 

[Soggy Biscuit]

I had a battery cable come loose once from a terminal clamp. I was driving (too fast) on a side of a mountain in a pitch dark when all lights went off, and the engine died. Definitely a near brown pants moment. Fixed the loose battery cable with a shoelace by the light of a Zippo and made it home in one piece.

Hopefully that doesn't happen to me. Thankfully something like that is an easy fix!

I'm going to hit up either Lowes of Home Depot tomorrow and get myself some bolt screws to replace the Phillips head screws holding the cables in place. The screws are way too easy to strip and I would prefer bolts anyway. The connector on the positive side of the battery came loose as I was moving again from a dead stop. It was still embarrassing since it happened in front of at least 100 onlookers. Many of whom had their cameras out for the exotic supercar car show at a nearby Lamborghini/McLaren dealership.