From: Jack (milveh@sbcglobal.net)
Date: Mon Nov 22 2004 - 14:42:21 PST
It's not a military vehicle incident, but it does
apply to diesel engines in general and its a good
lesson in caution!
I had been working with this dielsel tractor trying to
get the starter switch working. I needed to use it
ASAP, so I did what most folks would do, I just hot
wired it. On a tractor and as most of you know on
MV's too, this is a real simple process. Takes about
5 seconds using a heavy wire or steel tool. In this
case I touched a screw driver across two contact
points on the solenoid and she started right up, no
problem. So far so good.
So I am explaining this process to one of the guys who
would be driving this tractor. I was showing him which
places to touch if the tractor needed starting before
we could get the new switch installed. Still no
problem and I did it again...perfect.
But, on the third demonstration, uh, well the screw
driver I was using was kinda big and there was this,
uh, steel fuel line about 8 inches away! You can
guess what happened next. I touched the line by
accident and it arc'ed. In a flash it punched a tiny
hole thru the fuel line. The stream of diesel ignited
and fortunately it went right out.
This line goes from the injector pump back to the
uptake pump, only it was not running...thankfully!
Lesson here: Your 24 volt system is real hot. In
fact it is so hot it can weld steel if shorted in just
a blink. Fuel lines, even steel lines are real thin
metal and it doesn't take much to pierce one of these
lines. Keep fuel lines well away from electricals!
lol
Here's a bit of irony, that bad fuel line had been
rubbing on the block and it had worn a spot in the
line and why it had not burst open, I'll never know.
I had no clue that was happening as it was not in an
area easy to see. Had I not screwed up and shorted a
hole in the line, we figured in a few hours of running
she would have broken open anyway and spewed fuel
right onto the hot exhaust pipe under pressure. It
would have been far out in the field too.
Adversity happens for a reason, they say, I guess so,
cause it sure did in this case!
P.S. When I reinstalled a new line I put a 1/2" rubber
hose around it to shield it from any possible metal to
metal rubbing or electrical shorting. Works like new,
actually better because its safer.
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