5th cell problem, 5th cell heating?

[robehsi]

I followed the diagram and put the black to the positive and the red to the negative. I plugged it in while the switch was in the off position. I noticed after about 30 seconds the 5th cell was heating up, after a few minutes it was very hot almost burning me. I tried to reverse the wires and the same problem occured. If you are looking at the car from the rear I had them hooked up on the bottom of each side like it says to do. Even after reversing the wiring it still heated up like crazy while the switch was OFF. I don't understand what is going on here and some help would be greatly appreciated.

[robehsi]

I have done a lot of searching and I can't find any posts on the same problem.

[theMonster]

Forget the dumbass who said search without giving you help.

Your problem is one of two things

1. There is a short where metal is touching metal in the wiring. Check the + and - connectors on the battery pods on the side of the car and make sure they are not touching. Also make sure that your twisted/soldered 5th cell is insulated clead to the battery pod and not touching bare wire near the pod. Then make sure you've wrapped the stripped and soldered/twisted ends in electrical tape (not together, but separate for + and -) without any of the wires touching or being exposed.

2. You've wired the 5th battery in parallel and not serial thus making the 4 original aaa batteries charge the 5th one, in this case most likely overcharge it. THis may have already ruined the battery. Make sure it's not leaking and use a voltmeter to check and make sure it reads somewhere between 1.2-1.7V DC. When you splice the wires from the 5th cell in they should go + to - and - to + or black to red and red to black. I imagine you've wired it red to red and black to black.

I don't post here much any more so, I hope this solves your issue. As a sidenote, I'd reccommend ditching the 5th cell and just going and and doing 6 cells.

[robehsi]

thank you soooooooooooooo much for replying. i will try all of the above and see what i can come up with. i will repost and let you know what the problem was.



thanks again,
rob