[AT] OT:Musta been the lightning

[HaliganBar at aol.com]

Well, in a very bizarre chain of events, I've had alternator failure on 2 
vehicles in the same day. It started when my 4-wheeler wouldn't start...a check 
of the battery showed 11.3 volts before starting and 11.0 volts after starting. 
Then about 3 hours later I was coming back from the local farm store and I 
noticed the alternator light on my Chevy C2500 was lit up. So I sent the kids to 
drop the 4-wheeler at the dealership (the first time I was glad our oldest 
daughter had a boyfriend with a pickup) and I grabbed the "bumpy old pickup" and 
Kristopher (age 9) to help bale 151 bales of hay we had down.

After stacking the hay in the barn I removed the old alternator and my wife 
ran off to Autozone to get the new one. I did take the time to clean all the 
battery connections (my truck has dual batteries). The first battery cleaned up 
nicely. However, when I tried to unscrew the sidepost on the other battery the 
entire positive terminal came right out of the side of the battery. Well, I 
guess the good news is the cable ends are really clean..actually so is the 
positive terminal...unfortunately it's also sitting in my hand.

The only thing that kept me calm during the entire ordeal was the hour of 
quality time I spent raking hay with the Farmall 350 (requisite antique tractor 
reference). I think it's very strange that both should fail on the same day. I 
can't think of anything the 2 vehicles had in common that might explain 
it....except..we did have a thunderstorm pass nearby the night before. Maybe 
lightning fouls sparkplugs AND wrecks alternators.


Thanks for letting me ramble...
Karl