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help settle an argument, will shorting the ends of jumper cables fry the diodes in an altenator? I say yes!?
an inlaw needed to jump the battery on his car and we hooked cables to my battery and then he was hooking them to his vehicle. When he clamped the ground I did not notice any idle change in my engine so I questioned whether he had made a good ground connection and before I knew it or could say anything he was arcing the two ends of the cables that were connected to my battery and I told him I sure hope you did not fry my diodes in my altenator and he just kind of laughed.
5 Answers
- silencetheevil8Lv 61 decade agoFavorite Answer
No, and I will tell you why, diodes have what is called a reverse bias capacity, for power diodes such as those used for the rectifier in an automotive circuit are very large and have a very high reverse bias. The Reverse bias is the voltage and current at which a diode hooked up to a current in the opposits of its proper flow will eventually degrade and become a conductor this is usually between 24 and 36 volts for low voltage diodes. On another note he still needs to not do this because it is extremely dangerous, car batteries when charging, vent hdrogen gas which is highly combustable also there stands a chance that he could accidentally weld the clamps together which would cause a the entire jumper set to get red and even possibly white hot, so is it dangerous, you bet yoru sweet coconuts it is, will it destroy your voltage regulator or diodes, probably not.
- hsueh010Lv 71 decade ago
Yes they can fry diodes as well as your cars entire computer system.
In the old days (25+ years ago) this may have been an acceptable way to clean off the cable ends, but not with modern engines.
- tronaryLv 71 decade ago
There is no danger to the alt. only the battery if the ends were to staay connected as mentioned above. There is no reverse flow as the only connection is the shorting of the battery. The battery is the only item in the circuit. It is a dead short and will not affect the fusible link as no voltage is passing through it or the alternator or the computer. Only from positive to negative terminsl. Check it out.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Good question..
I believe yes it could fry the diodes or the brushes in the alternator. Arching the connection could send a feed back to the alternator.
But if your vehicle is grounded good, you shouldn't have much of a worry.
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- Anonymous1 decade ago
Well, it is definitely not safe. But the chances of it frying the rectifier in your alternator is slim. Burn a fuse-link, maybe, damage the voltage regulator, maybe, damage a battery, maybe, but I doubt the rectifier in your Alt is damaged. You would have known if it was. If you lost the rectifier, your alternator would be pumping AC current into your system, wouldn't take too long to notice.
