Welding on cars - what to disconnect

[James1979]

id love to see whats in one just out of curiosity

Me too. This one’s off the snap on van

 

[tom2207]

this springs to mind , by the author . It may be a wee bit too '' Belfast"" for some of you , but stick with it .
Ignore the video , just listen to the tale.

id better add a few things
The Hat , was a workshop foreman , so called because they wore a hat rather than a flat cap
Went Harpic , Belfast saying it is a bit like Took the head staggers , it comes from an old tv advert for Harpic Loo cleaner , the add catch phrase was '' clean round the bend''.
The White House is a famous shop in Portrush , a local sea side town .

 

[grim_d]

this springs to mind , by the author . It may be a wee bit too '' Belfast"" for some of you , but stick with it .
Ignore the video , just listen to the tale.

id better add a few things
The Hat , was a workshop foreman , so called because they wore a hat rather than a flat cap
Went Harpic , Belfast saying it is a bit like Took the head staggers , it comes from an old tv advert for Harpic Loo cleaner , the add catch phrase was '' clean round the bend''.
The White House is a famous shop in Portrush , a local sea side town .

Couldn't understand most of that but got the jist.

Reminds me of when the general manager of my old work was informed that we had no stock of flux capacitors...

 

[bricol]

I remove the battery - I had one blow up, literally, when I was 18, despite protecting it from sparks etc. Bits of plastic whistling past you, with an acid shower to follow tends to make you a little wary.
Disconnect the engine and ABS ECU.

And everything still worked afterwards

But I've not welded anything newer than 1991 as they simply haven't needed it - application of waxes, underseal, and removing any rust as it occured seems to have minimised the need to.

 

[Ubique]

The Manufacturer approved bodyshops disconnect both battery terminals and connect the cables together & remove any electronic components within the vicinity of the welding. Plasma cutters are rated for automotive use (mainly GYS) to minimise any HF EMR. It's all probably belt & braces or some insurance requirement, that said, they do use TIG on aluminium components so potentially the HF could cause damage where DC would not. Personally I've only used plasma cutters on vehicles and leave the battery connected as it is essentially a big smoothing capacitor.

 

[KimB]

Disconnect the gas because the welding will fit in with most mechanics that fix things with the shop welder

 

[tom2207]

I remove the battery - I had one blow up, literally, when I was 18, despite protecting it from sparks etc. Bits of plastic whistling past you, with an acid shower to follow tends to make you a little wary.
Disconnect the engine and ABS ECU.

And everything still worked afterwards

But I've not welded anything newer than 1991 as they simply haven't needed it - application of waxes, underseal, and removing any rust as it occured seems to have minimised the need to.

Land Rover


nuff said.

 

[premmington]

I am an auto electrician.

Battery leads on!

Welding earth return lead as near as possible to area needed to be welded! With hyper clean area for earth clamp!

Do not use:

HF start tig

Pulse MIG

Hot start MMA

--------------


So you are left with:

Wound coil MIG welder and lift arc TIG sets with low open circuit voltage!

 

[GRW]

I have an LDV Convoy. This explains my need to weld I feel .
OK, if the Ford 2.5di Banana engine and the rest of it were any less electronic it'd be made out of wood, but for the record I've never disconnected anything to weld bits of it up (but do have the "Work Return" Clamp as close as poss).

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

The only time I have damaged an ECU was when I was welding on a new Dennis Lorry.
The gear box ECU went south, spo the Alison Drive was not working.

 

[Old Dog]

The best thing to do is first thing earth clamp near the welding point. Disconnect both positive and negative leads and join them together to complete the circuit (DON'T joint the battery terminals like I someone did, did wake them up though a pair of 1200 amp batteries makes a good arc welder) most of the time you will get away with not disconnecting anything, BUT some times it all goes pear shaped. On more than one occasion I've been called out to electrical faults caused by welding and had to replace ECU's. Fast chargers and bad jump starting also causes problems.