While tightening battery terminal ,,,SPARKS fly

Were you plugged into shore power when you did this?

If you were NOT: then you totally killed the batteries which very likely are/were, in need of replacement anyway.. OR you burned out something in the negative lead (The lead it self or a fuse or a shunt, NORMALLY there are no fuses in the negative lead on the battery however)

Easy way to test for problems in negative lead.. Run a automotive jumper cable from teh battery NEGATIVE (be very very sure it is the negative) to the frame and see if genny starts. IF so problem in negative side of life.

IF you were plugged in then there is very likely a fuse or circuit breaker, in fact there may be 2 or 3 or as many as five. scattered about. INSIDE the converter (or on it's assoicated fuse panel) are "Reverse polarity Fuses" designed to blow if the batteries are installed backwards, these fuses are usually 30 amp and you may have 1, 2 or 3 of them.

On my Coach the diagram for the Intelletec Battery Control Center says that there are two PUSH (and I mean Push HARD) to reset breakers in the bottom of the BCC, accessible without opening the BCC.. In my case, I do not have them, I have a 80 amp thermal self-resetting breaker next to the BCC There may also be a disaster fuse.. I have two battery banks and an inverter, the inverter connected directly to both banks via a disaster fuse. I did something not unlike what you did, (not plugged in though) and popped one of those sixty dollar fuses (OUCH!!!!). when I put in my new DEKA's a few months back.

Remove neg cable first, replace it last. Also, if you have two sets of batteries, house and chassis, I believe you would need to remove BOTH neg cables, or it could short to the other set. Correct me if I am wrong.

Number 1 rule when working with batteries is: Disconnect the ground (-) FIRST and reconnect it LAST. That way that problem cannot happen.

One of my first calls as a paramedic was to a mechanic who had essentially blown off his ring ginger (burns) when his wedding ring touched the chassis while that hand was holding the wrench handle as the working end of the wrench was on the + terminal. Both the finger AND the ring were damaged so badly neither could be salvaged.

I also remove my metal strap wrist watch. (My ring will no longer come off!)

MY 95 ONAN has a box at the rear with two switches and two fuses, i would check there first it has a reset on it..

Golden_HVAC wrote:
Do you have a volt meter?

Check for 12 volts at your battery and at the generator. If you no longer have 12 volts at the generator, then look for a 100 - 125 amp circuit breaker near the battery or load center (in a storage compartment normally)

Did you reconnect all the wires properly?

Next time use pliers with plastic handles, or wrap electrical tape around the handles before using them near the batteries. Even the crescent wrench or any open end wrench, should be wrapped with electrical tape, so if dropped on a battery terminal it will not short out and explode the battery.

BATTERIES are dangerous! They can explode, especially the larger 8D batteries like I found in a Country coach and other larger DP motorhomes. 8D batteries can put out 2000 amps for a few seconds when a terminal shorts to another terminal.

Fred.

Fred.

A better solution to this problem would be to disconnect the negative battery cable from the battery then there would be no sparks flying. No blown fuses to look for and a lot safer. JMO

Do you have a volt meter?

Check for 12 volts at your battery and at the generator. If you no longer have 12 volts at the generator, then look for a 100 - 125 amp circuit breaker near the battery or load center (in a storage compartment normally)

Did you reconnect all the wires properly?

Next time use pliers with plastic handles, or wrap electrical tape around the handles before using them near the batteries. Even the crescent wrench or any open end wrench, should be wrapped with electrical tape, so if dropped on a battery terminal it will not short out and explode the battery.

BATTERIES are dangerous! They can explode, especially the larger 8D batteries like I found in a Country coach and other larger DP motorhomes. 8D batteries can put out 2000 amps for a few seconds when a terminal shorts to another terminal.

Fred.

Fred.

Look directly on the generator for a breaker switch....Dennis

There may be a heavy fuse in line from the battery pack

Did you replace any batteries
Chances are you dropped a cable and did not reconnect it

Shorting a cable at the battery should not have involved any fuse or generator connection

A spike on the circuit might cause a disconnect to drop out, but that should reset when you cycle the switch

I would have to think it would be in the negative cable that goes directly to ground.

I think because you touched the positive battery terminal to the negative frame, the circuit would have to complete directly from the frame to the negative terminal.