"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Occam's Razor

Well, Croft resolved my electrical issue for me through some of my own Googling.

Turns out I could have solved this problem myself on Thursday evening in about 10 seconds without even going outside.

The problem I was experiencing is that none of my 12V appliances--furnace blower, fridge, lights, or water pump--were working. The battery was good, but no power was going out. Everything had worked fine until late afternoon on Thursday. I couldn't fathom what had happened in that time to kill my electrical system.

The first thing I suspected was a loose connection. I thought that maybe I hadn't wrenched the main connector enough because I didn't have much room to work. So, I went out and bought a teeny wrench. It didn't help.

I then went and bought a battery terminal cleaning tool and some special gel. They didn't help.

We blamed the cables. We blamed the converter. I ran I don't know how many tests with my multimeter. I triple checked my fuses. I quadruple checked my breakers.

Then I did some Googling and found reference to a battery turn off switch.

Croft asked me if that switch could possibly be the great big yellow button on the dash board I've referred to a few times.

Indeed. When it's pulled out, the 12V system works fine. When it gets hit by someone's knee because it's at a silly height and location, it shuts off the 12V system.

WHO DESIGNS THESE THINGS?!

I'm choosing to laugh even though I am profoundly embarrassed.

But the upshot of this is that my battery job was good!

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