Welding On ATV's

[drfat4]

So I have a little problem here, I was making myself a front bumper to go on my four wheeler, and I was hours doing it, and I had it all measured and clamped then when I welded it and tried to put it back on it didn't fit. So can I bolt on the arm sort of parts, then set the bar on top and weld it, because I heard somewhere that if you weld something that's attatched to your quad and it isn't grounded properly there's a chance that you could fry the whole ingnition system? Is this true?

 

[Longhairfreak]

Unplug your ignition!!!

 

[drfat4]

Unplug your ignition!!!

Can't belive I didn't think of that. Thanks man.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Unplug your ignition!!!

You mean disconnect your battery,.. unplugging your ignition won't to squat when all you do is unplug the key switch

 

[boots]

well you dont have too do that if you put the ground right next to where you are welding but it is better to unhook the battery ,,,, but keep the ground close to where you are welding it could arc in the bearings and that is not goood..

 

[drfat4]

well you dont have too do that if you put the ground right next to where you are welding but it is better to unhook the battery ,,,, but keep the ground close to where you are welding it could arc in the bearings and that is not goood...

Okay I'll do that, I welded the grab bar I made while it was attatched and it was alright but I didn't know it would do anything then anyways.

 

[boots]

dont listen too LHF he doesnt know.... all he knows is fat chicks and wegdes so i have heard

 

[Longhairfreak]

You mean disconnect your battery,.. unplugging your ignition won't to squat when all you do is unplug the key switch

Maybe I wasnt clear. Unplug your CDI box.

 

[zeebs]

dont listen too LHF he doesnt know.... all he knows is fat chicks and wegdes so i have heard

You mean if LHF told ya to jack up your quad and remove the wheels when you weld on it you wouldn't listen to him?

 

[d.t.rider]

just disconect the battery.

 

[tripster]

Just disconnecting the battery doesn't protect the ign. The charge coil and ign coil on stator are different circuits unplugging the cdi saves the ign.

 

[boots]

You don't have to do that even just as long as your ground is right where you are welding. Electricity travels the least resistance and shortest distance. So in reality if you have your ground right there by where your welding it will not travel through the whole thing to make the circuit.

 

[kbrunlees]

Honestly people, take the battery out before welding, stupid things happen with batteries. Just take it out and do your welding. This way you are leaving nothing to chance. Eh?

 

[boots]

Honestly people, take the battery out before welding, stupid things happen with batteries. Just take it out and do your welding. This way you are leaving nothing to chance. Eh?

thank for the advice Mr welder man

 

[moyiesledhead]

You don't have to do that even just as long as your ground is right where you are welding. Electricity travels the least resistance and shortest distance. So in reality if you have your ground right there by where your welding it will not travel through the whole thing to make the circuit.

That only works at zero resistance. If there's any resistance between where you're welding and ground you'll get various amounts of current going everywhere. It just becomes a big parralell resistive circuit.

(edit, my bad!) Or "parallel"! Depends on whether you can spell or not. Apparantly I can't today!

 

[boots]

ya well if you are an inch away from your weld with your ground it is not going to travell through the whole bike before it make a ciruit .... ummm maybe i am just a dumb welder that doesnt know his job... thanks for the info

 

[kbrunlees]

Watched my stepfather years ago just about do himself in welding on a vehicle while the battery was nearby. Just paranoid about welding near batteries.

 

[Polarblu]

If this old stupid idea was true all 200,000 welders would have to disconnect the batteries on their truck every time they weld. They dont, and dont everyday. Ground near to your weld, anything past that is just following advice from people that dont know. I have burned off differential sensor wires by grounding to the frame and not the diff, (rubber isolated) that current isnt going to go all the way through your ecm/ coil / cdi and go all the way back!!! The past of least resistance is taken so the bigger the wire the least resistance. Your frame is a pretty big wire compared to the cdi. To actually make this myth true you would have to ground directly to the ecm after you unbolted it and it was just hanging by the wires and even then it would be a million in one chance that you could even strike an arc.