Stupid? or am I being paranoid?

[Nefarious]

The car is laid up at the moment (and has been for nearly 4 weeks), minus its starter motor while it's being refurbed, but I've got a trackday on Saturday. I won't get the starter back til Saturday morning, so the plan is to grab it, refit it, and head straight off to the track. Tight timing, but quite do-able.

BUT, I strongly suspect that the battery won't be in the strongest state after a longish lay-up, so I was going to pop the Accumate on it tonight and give it 36 hours or so to charge.

My concern is that with the fuel rail disconnected, this could lead to an unhappy outcome - electrical sparks and petrol vapours don't tend to make happy bedfellows and I'm a bit concerned that even though the fuel line has had a good couple of weeks to dry itself out, I could return of Saturday morning to find a pile of smoldering ashes where my garage once stood.

Am I being excessively paranoid?

[touching cloth]

Whip the battery out?

[morebeanz]

Not being paranoid, just sensible. As TC says, take the thing out...

[V8 GRF]

I'd take the battery out if you're concerned but where are the electrical sparks coming from? If you attach chargers correctly you don't get them. That said if you attach the Accumate to the battery with the power off and then switch on there will be no sparks at all. Like wise turn it off before you remove the Accumate.
I'd also be surprised if there was a high enough concentration of fumes to get ignition.

Edited by V8 GRF on Thursday 22 November 09:48

[Nefarious]

V8 GRF said:

I'd take the battery out if you're concerned but where are the electrical sparks coming from? If you attach chargers correctly you don't get them. That said if you attach the Accumate to the battery with the power off and then switch on there will be no sparks at all. Like wise turn it off before you remove the Accumate.
I'd also be surprised if there was a high enough concentration of fumes to get ignition.

Largely my right-side brain thinking. There was just a little niggle saying "what if", follwoed by a twinge of how stupid I'd feel if that 1% c0ck-up did come in.
I'll whip the battery out just to be on the safe side (it's disconnected anyway)

[dkennedyvxt]

I'll be standing by the phone on Sat morning mate waiting for the GO GO GO or STAY IN BED