Never Too Much Safety and Caution When Working With Fuel - Remove Fuse 4

[Pawel66]

It has been written about and underlined in million of places on this forum: caution required when working with fuel system. Yet it was not enough for me...

I am having my engine a bit dismantled as I am working on the camshaft. I also decided, while we are doing this, to remove and yellow plate all fuel lines, as the plating faded - and so we did.

In the meantime I also decided to remove the wiper motor, replace the mounting rubber pads and do the cosmetic work on the wiper motor looks. And so I did. I installed back the wiper motor and wanted to see if the wiper blades travel is ok or if it needs adjustment.

I re-connected the battery (not much time to think while screwing the connector on, I have the main ground switch), but needed to have ignition on. I thought for a moment - what may go wrong, but quickly decided that as long as I do not switch on the starter, it is ok. I bent over, stuck the key in the switch and turned the key. The next thing I saw was a 2-3m high fountain of fuel pouring from the open cold start valve line connection, next to FIP. It has almost reached the garage ceiling. Fortunately it went a bit to the left, away from my engine bay, onto my wife's car standing on the side. A gasoline rain...

Thank God there was nothing around working or switched on that could produce spark. Thank God I had no cigarette in my mouth...

I got scared. 

So from now on - not only I will disconnect the battery when working on fuel system. I will also always remove fuse no. 4.

I know I am not discovering America, but I thought it might be worth writing it again for the other weekend mechanics.

[doitwright]

In light of the recent posts of what fire can do to a car and your disposition, your experience is a caution worth repeating. Thanks for sharing.

[Shvegel]

That kind of stuff happens all the time in the shops.  Most of the best mechanics I worked with had some form of visual cue to remind them in situations like that. A rag on the windshield when anything wasn't right was a quick one and one of the more meticulos guys I worked with would always pick up his ratchet after an oil change and make sure it was set to tighten the drain plug which told him that he had indeed done that .  I always wrote on "Oil, Coolant,  Trans fluid etc  on the windshield with a wax pencil to denote anything that needed to be attended to when doing any major work.

I think my favorote of all time was an pld Saab mechanic who had cables from his workbench attache to the tools used to set the fron suspension for working on it so if he left them in they would pull loose when he backed out of his stall.  I opted for the less failproof but cooler "Remove Before Flight" red banners you see around aircraft.

[zak]

You are a lucky guy Pawel.

jz

[Benz Dr.]

One of the biggest starters of fires is trouble lights. The bulb gets loose and all it takes is one little spark around gasoline fumes..........

[Pawel66]

You are a lucky guy Pawel.

jz

You bet I was! That time...

[GGR]

I think my favorote of all time was an pld Saab mechanic who had cables from his workbench attache to the tools used to set the fron suspension for working on it so if he left them in they would pull loose when he backed out of his stall. 

Reminds me of the day when I adjusted the valves clearance on my V8 Coupe. I had taken the spark plugs out and was rotating the engine with a 27 mm socket on the front crank bolt and a long breaker bar. Once I finished putting everything back together I started the engine and guess what: I had forgotten the 27mm socket and breaker bar on the crank. I let you imagine the racket and the tools flying in all directions! Fortunately nobody got hurt, and incredibly enough, nothing got damaged! but that was one scary experience!

[Mike Hughes]

I will second the bit about trouble lights.  some years ago there was a huge fire in the service department at the Buick dealership next door to the Lincoln Mercury dealership where I was working.  A technician had a Roadmaster wagon up in the air replacing an in-tank fuel pump when he inadvertently knocked his drop light off its perch.  The bulb shattered when it hit the ground and there was a loud boom!

The technician when to the hospital and spent some time in the burn unit, that wagon on the lift and the cars in the air on either side of it were totaled, cars on the ground in the immediate vicinity had their vinyl roofs melted, and the steel structural supports and roof of the shop above the burn scene required replacement.  Thank goodness the fire department was only a block away or it would have been much worse.

Bottom line:  I threw out every incandescent bulb drop light I owned in both of my garages that weekend and replaced them with (relatively safer) fluorescent units.  Recently I have added a couple of modern LED units.

While speaking of garage safety, it bears mentioning that plastic gasoline containers are NOT terribly heat resistant and should never be stored in a garage, especially an attached garage!  A little fire can turn into a big one right quick if a plastic gasoline container releases vapors or its contents due to heat.  A pile of dirty shop rags on a bench or trash container can spontaneously combust.  They should go into a metal fire-proof container until they are either washed for re-use or disposed of properly.

[Shvegel]

A friends shop had a major for due to an idiot that cut the straps on a gas tank with a torch on a car he was scrapping AFTER he removed the fuel pump (there was a 4" hole in the top of the tank where it was removed from).  After being told to put a stand under the tank and cut the straps with a pair of shears he one handed a nearly full fuel tank and cut the straps and dropped the tank and the torch.  The important thing to lean from what happened to him was they had trench drains in the shop and the gasoline dropped into the trench and once there they couldn't put the fire out.  They had it out three times with fire extinguishers but it kept creaping back out of the drain.  If you ever design a shop keep trench drains in areas like wash stalls where you need then and use conventional floor drains for the rest.

Needless to say the employee no longer works there and there is a sign hanging from the newly installed fire sprinkler system that says "This sprinkler system was funded by the Chubb Insurance Group with the help of (Ex employee's name).  Gone but not forgotten.

[mdsalemi]

Bottom line:  I threw out every incandescent bulb drop light I owned in both of my garages that weekend and replaced them with (relatively safer) fluorescent units.  Recently I have added a couple of modern LED units.

It's amazing how fast the "rise and fall" of CFL (compact fluorescent lamps) was. Today, around here at least, if you go to the big box stores (be it Sam's Club, Costco, Menards, Lowe's, The Home Depot, etc.) you can barely find any CFLs...they've been replaced in short order by the proliferation of the more efficient and longer lasting LEDs.

I do have one "sealed" trouble light with linear fluorescents, but all other lighting around the car for work--flashlights and work lights are battery operated LEDs. Personally, I wouldn't trust a CFL screwed into an old-school trouble light w/o a protective shield on it; they are as likely to break and cause an issue just like an incandescent. In the old days of the 60s through 90s, I cannot tell you how many normal incandescent lamps broke from shock in my trouble lights; even the "severe duty" ones. I threw out all of these dinosaurs a long time ago.

For those that use a cordless tool system (I use Bosch 20V LiIon) everyone (Bosch, Ryobi, DeWalt, Milwaukee, etc.) makes adjustable LED work lights. They last a LONG time on a charge. I even bought a Bosch worklight recently for very little, and for $10 upgraded to an LED lamp...

[wwheeler]

RIP CFLs. I never liked those lights at home or the shop. And they never lasted as they claimed. There are SO many cool LED work lights that buying one is like going to a toy store. A friend just sent me a link to Harbor freight where they have a new Braun cordless LED that does everything. With coupon it is about $19.99. Can't beat that! 

[mdsalemi]

RIP CFLs...And they never lasted as they claimed.

I'm laughing at this Wallace...because I agree 100%. Most of my CFL's lasted about the same as the incandescents they replaced. Thankfully with Costco warranties and rebates from the electric company they didn't cost any more either!  HOWEVER, all of these that I despise were basically "shlock" made in China and sold under the FEIT name. The very first CFL I ever bought was one "Made in the USA" by GE. This was a two piece unit, lamp and ballast. It cost about $20, 20 years ago. It is the one that still works. What a surprise. 

[wwheeler]

LEDs are similar. When they first came out they were very expensive and then cheaper ones started showing up. I bought some of the cheap LEDs and they had issues. The expensive ones I bought back then are still going to this day. You get what you pay for sometimes.

Luckily for everybody, even good LED bulbs are a reasonable cost now. Long live LEDs.

[Benz Dr.]

I had a  300D ( my own ) catch on fire in my old shop once but I was able to put it out. Next day I took the car for a test drive and decided that since it smelled badly I would roll the windows down and turn the blower motor on. I'm not sure why I though this would work because it didn't.
I went inside my house to answer the phone and when I came back outside it was fully engulfed in flames. We called the fire department and when they arrived the fire chief noted that the engine was still running. I told him it was a diesel and that it would run until the fuel lines burned off - which it did.   

The fire burned the insulation off of the wires going to the heater motor which made the wires touch and start the fire all over again. Original fire was started when I was welding and it set fire to some floor insulation under the dash which in turn burned off the wiring insulation.

So, we shut everything off at least a half hour before we leave for the day if it involves anything that has to do with heat, sparks, or welding and use that time to clean up and put tools away. I also unplug all of our power tools and lights at the end of the day. Most fires that burn you to the ground start while you're not around.

[ja17]

I try not to keep any card board boxes at all in my shop. Card board is one of the best fire starters. A spark on cardboard can quickly turn into a fire or it may smolder for hours before turning into a blaze. Gas cans and cardboard boxes always are stored out of the shop.