pardon the elementary question BUT what is the best way to weld on the jeep w/o causing electrical distress to all things sensitive to voltage? i am fabbing some bumpers and need to tack some stuff together while bolted on the frame. thanks.

 

It depends. Here is how "I" do it. I am sure opinions will vary. I disconnect both sides of the battery. I also unplug and REMOVE the main ECU. A lot of ECUs have a ground that connects from the inside of the case to their mounting bolt. That's why I remove it. This is still no guaranty that you might not fry a sensor(s), because of all of the seperate ground wires running to various ground locations all over the Jeep. One last tip. Always work with the ground electrode VERY close to what you're welding. This way, the fire has a short path to ground.

 

I am a heavy duty mechanic and welder who regularly welds on vehicles with engine/trans/abs,chassis and other electronic control systems,just disconnect battery so no current flowing usually just disconnect ground side is fine(just make sure all grounds removed at battery)also it is just common sense to ground close to your work when welding to try and keep current flow in the affected area,Oh by the way I have forgotten to disco batteries once or twice prior to light welding and happy to report no fried or cooked electronic components but do not recomend this.I have done a fair bit of welding on my 07 rubi(with neg cable disconnected at battery)and have had no issues

 

thank you jeep peoples for the quick response, you have confirmed what i thought was the case. didnt want to have to waste any money on a new ecu.

 

Disconnect the battery. If you are welding near any kind of electronic circuit board/processor it would be a good idea to unplug and remove it.

 

At work we have million dollar plus trailer units with multiple engines (with ECU's), lots of sensors (some in the 10K cost range) and computers and all our welders do is disconnect both pos an neg leads to the batteries. I can't ever recall their being a problem and anything being fried. Same thing when they weld on our Kenworth tractors; disconnect both leads. It's probably only necessary to do one but policy is to do both. It doesn't take much more time and it can't hurt.

 

I work at a company where we weld on new chrysler vehicles everyday. We just disconnect the battery. Never have any problems, unless someone runs catches the vehicle on fire.........

 

Yup, as stated above. Disco the battery and you SHOULD be fine. I never had any issues when doing truck fabs. It always a good idea to put the work-lead (ground cable) as close to the worksite as possible and NEVER on the other side of anything that moves like bearings, etc as it can fuse or work harden them, which will cause seizure or failure. So if you're working on the front, ground it there, and re-ground on the back end when you're working there.

 

yep- you should probably disconnect the battery-.... just had custom bumper fabbed, oops erased the hard drive on MY-Gig.... all still works- and able to reload music... but lost all that was on it already.

 

This is what i do. Actually, i try to put the ground on the pice that im welding if possible. This could also prevent causing an arc inside of a bearing. This may be useful when wilding "C" gussets.

corey d