Car Bricked While Driving. Any Thoughts on This

[louibluey]

In a previous life I operated a UL (Underwriters Laboratory) Control Panel Shop. It was mandatory to torque all connections to manufacturers specs. We had torque wrenched, ratchets and screw drivers to check everything.

Excellent, so with that kind of experience, do you have a gut feel for what torque number we might be looking for those four stud/nut combinations at that junction box. Different for the larger red cable than the smaller studs to the left?

I know that we need the actual manufacturer number, but maybe you can give us some initial insight with an educated guess for the torque value.

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[Rex]

Honestly, in many years of ET (shipboard, not sure about aviation electrical maintenance)/EE work military and industrial, outside of a factory, I cannot remember a torque wrench or torque indicating tool being used for an electrical connection.

I was in electronic contract manufacturing for years and every nut and screw was done up to a specified torque with a calibrated driver, be it hand, windy or windless. For the windies and the electric drivers there was a daily calibration check. The hand tools were done less frequently depending upon use.

 

[Jon]

I know that we need the actual manufacturer number, but maybe you can give us some initial insight with an educated guess for the torque value.

I honestly just torqued it by feel. I haven't tried to look up the actual part and find the spec. I've tightened up many a wire in my career.

Electrical people tend to tighten until it snaps and then back off a little. ?

 

[K~Mae]

I don’t have anything with me. My wife showed up while I wait on the tow truck. I opened the passenger door so I could sit in her car and still have access to the inside. We’ll a gust of wind must of partially closed the door so I can’t get in now. Yay.

Tow truck is still another 45 minutes out. If he can’t tow it, I’m going to go get a jump box and some tools and try and look for a 12 volt problem.

@Jon wow, that is totally crazy. Curious, how did you get back in the car?

 

[louibluey]

I honestly just torqued it by feel. I haven't tried to look up the actual part and find the spec. I've tightened up many a wire in my career.

Right, so that was kinda my initial point, although the side of the road after 6 hours and first time digging into this hardware is certainly an exception to any rule. I too have tightened many electronic / electrical connections over the years, by feel alone. The shop factory manufacturing environment excepted (I would expect it there).

So, say we can find a spec for these posts, could we get some recommendations for an affordable pro-sumer or better torque indicating or torque limiting ratchet for relatively small nuts (e.g. 10mm)? I have one foot and three foot 1/2" torque wrenches for wheel lug nuts, but nothing this small, maybe 12-13 foot pound range? Possibly 8-10 fp for the smaller posts? Should it be a 1/4" ratchet? I never turn down an excuse to buy a new tool.

So, how do we get the Ford spec. for the smaller studs to the left, and the "jesus nut" on the red cable lug?

hmm, here's a pro tool from McMaster Carr, on the pricey side:

Grainger for less:

 

[Jon]

@Jon wow, that is totally crazy. Curious, how did you get back in the car?

Borrowed some tools and a jump box from guys at work. Once I fixed the loose wire, everything was functional again.

 

[dtbaker61]

Right, so that was kinda my initial point, although the side of the road after 6 hours and first time digging into this hardware is certainly an exception to any rule. I too have tightened many electronic / electrical connections over the years, by feel alone. The shop factory manufacturing environment excepted (I would expect it there).

So, say we can find a spec for these posts, could we get some recommendations for an affordable pro-sumer or better torque indicating or torque limiting ratchet for relatively small nuts (e.g. 10mm)? I have one foot and three foot 1/2" torque wrenches for wheel lug nuts, but nothing this small, maybe 12-13 foot pound range? Possibly 8-10 fp for the smaller posts? Should it be a 1/4" ratchet? I never turn down an excuse to buy a new tool.

So, how do we get the Ford spec. for the smaller studs to the left, and the "jesus nut" on the red cable lug?

hmm, here's a pro tool from McMaster Carr, on the pricey side:

Grainger for less:

yeah, good torque wrenches are pretty expensive to start with, then should be calibrated periodically, AND we would need a verified target setting from a Service manual if you wanted to be to spec.

I would just make sure this gets filed with Ford by VIN, and if and when you have a 12v problem we have another idea where to start now if the HVBJB is ok.

 

[jammic]

When I get my Mach-E in August/September I’m going to tell the dealer to tighten all of these bolts right in front of me.

My wife will be the primary driver of it. I don’t want it doing what happened to the soap and stranding her.

This is what I'm worried about. My wife is primary driver. Trust in ford was hard earned after we had a terrible experience with our 2010 Fusion we had right after we got married dying in the middle of the Blue Route in PA due to the throttle body issue for that model.

 

[louibluey]

yeah, good torque wrenches are pretty expensive to start with, then should be calibrated periodically, AND we would need a verified target setting from a Service manual if you wanted to be to spec.

I would just make sure this gets filed with Ford by VIN, and if and when you have a 12v problem we have another idea where to start now if the HVBJB is ok.

This one looks pretty cool, I wonder if it is good enough for home DIY use for this application?
3-37 ft lbs seems like a good range. I imagine we want to avoid the wide ranges such as 5 to 100.

 

[Jon]

Right, so that was kinda my initial point, although the side of the road after 6 hours and first time digging into this hardware is certainly an exception to any rule. I too have tightened many electronic / electrical connections over the years, by feel alone. The shop factory manufacturing environment excepted (I would expect it there).

So, say we can find a spec for these posts, could we get some recommendations for an affordable pro-sumer or better torque indicating or torque limiting ratchet for relatively small nuts (e.g. 10mm)? I have one foot and three foot 1/2" torque wrenches for wheel lug nuts, but nothing this small, maybe 12-13 foot pound range? Possibly 8-10 fp for the smaller posts? Should it be a 3/8" ratchet? I never turn down an excuse to buy a new tool.

So, how do we get the Ford spec. for the smaller studs to the left, and the "jesus nut" on the red cable lug?

I would think, without looking it up, that the torque would be less than 10 fp. I would just but a 1/4 ratchet from Amazon to do the job.

 

[Jon]

No need to spend a ton of money on one.

 

[AKgrampy]

I guess my thought is there is one report like this (that we know of) so it may be a one of a kind error. Nut could have been slightly cross threaded and the torque wrench indicated correctly. If the see additional reports then I will become concerned. I plan to do the cut-outs for the jump ability and I will check the positive jump post from time to time to ensure it is tight by trying to wiggle it. With the cap it should not be an issue. As for a torque wrench there are nice options available for bicycle maintenance that are smaller in size.

 

[MachEMaster]

I guess my thought is there is one report like this (that we know of) so it may be a one of a kind error. Nut could have been slightly cross threaded and the torque wrench indicated correctly. If the see additional reports then I will become concerned. I plan to do the cut-outs for the jump ability and I will check the positive jump post from time to time to ensure it is tight by trying to wiggle it. With the cap it should not be an issue. As for a torque wrench there are nice options available for bicycle maintenance that are smaller in size.

If the drag torque to thread the nut on is excessive, the TQ wrench will click when it hits its preset torque, even though the fastener is not run down all the way. This could be attributed to the Human Factors of working on a high volume production line. I am glad the OP was able to stop safely.

 

[Camille]

So after reading the OP post, my husband and I went out to check our battery cables. Good news...all tight, bad news, we can't get the frunk light on dash to go out! Help a girl out here?
The other thing I noticed is there seems to be a "gap" from the windshield to the frame of the car. I would think there would be some sort of tape or insulation at the very least. Is this what others are having replaced or fixed on windshield?

 

[louibluey]

I ended up with this one, very similar. Also realized we are in inch pound ranges (I have others from Tekton that have performed well):

The fastener charts are difficult to read, but I see 10 ft lbs comes up often for 1/4" studs. Seems to depend on diameter, thread pitch, thread type, and metal type. @Mach-Lee said he couldn't find the torque numbers in the work shop manual (WSM), so hopefully we can get the numbers somewhere else. 10 ft lbs or less (100-120 in lbs) seems like a good starting point then for the large stud. I will just see how it feels, sometimes you can just feel "too tight" at the edge of damage. I just went through the WSM, cannot find the torque number for the 12V electrical connections, just says to check tight in troubleshooting.

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