WARNING: Failure to follow these safety precautions may lead to a serious accident. SAFETY 7.4 BATTERY Battery electrolyte contains sulphuric acid, and batteries generate hydrogen gas, so mistaken handling can lead to serious injury or fire. For this reason, always observe the following precautions. Never bring any lighted cigarette or flame near the battery. When working with batteries, ALWAYS wear safety glasses and rubber gloves. If you spill acid on your clothes or skin, immediately flush the area with large a- mounts of water. Battery acid could cause blindness if splashed into the eyes.
If acid gets into your eyes, flush them immediately with large quantities of water and see a doctor at once. If you accidentally drink electrolyte, drink a large quantity of water or milk, beaten egg or vegetable oil. Call a doctor or poison prevention center immediately. Before working with batteries, stop the engine and turn the starting switch to the OFF position. Avoid short circuiting the battery terminals (between the positive minal and neg- ative l objects, such as tools.
When installing the battery, connect the positive l first, and when removing the battery, disconnect the negative When removing or installing, check which is the positive terminal and negative terminal, and tighten the nuts securely. If the battery electrolyte is near the LOWER LEVEL, add distilled water. Do not add distilled water above the UPPER LEVEL. When cleaning the top surface of the battery, wipe it with a cloth. Never use gasoline, thinner, or any other organic solvent or cleaning agent. Tighten the battery caps securely. If the battery electrolyte is frozen, do not charge the battery or start the engine with a different power source.
There is danger that this will ignite the battery. When charging or starting the engine with a different power source, melt the battery electrolyte and check for leakage of battery electrolyte before starting. Always remove the battery from the chassis before charging it. If any mistake is made in the method of connecting the booster cables, it may cause a fire, so always do as follows. Carry out the starting operation with two workers (with one worker sitting in the operators seat). When starting from another machine, do not allow the two machines to touch. When connecting the booster cables, turn the starting switch OFF for both the normal machine and problem machine.
Be sure to connect the positive ground or negative The final ground connection is the connection of the ground to the engine block of the problem machine. However, this will cause sparks, so be sure to connect it as far as possible from the battery. Starting procedure when using booster cables See 16.3 IF BATTERY IS DISCHARGED on page 2-85. When removing the booster cables, be careful not to let the booster cable clips touch each other or to let the clips touch the machine. WA380-3MC 1-17 BATTERY HAZARD PREVENTION STARTING WITH BOOSTER CABLES