Jump starting a vehicle

[Jeff396]

Hi Bird,

Nice to see you back on board./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I don't think I ever really learned my method, it just made sense to me that it would be better to be as far away from the bad battery as possible when making the final connection. But like you say, it's probably 6 of one and a half dozen of the other.

Two years ago I had the battery go in a '95 Ford van. This is the first time it has happened to me in a newer vehicle as I had a bad habit of selling them before it would get to that point. Anyways, I could not get over how quickly the battery went. One day it was fine, the next it was gone. On the old cars you went through that time period where starting would get sluggish and you'd have some warning that it was time. Worst part about the van was that apparently the battery had just enough power to make the security system go nuts unless I stood there disarming it everytime it started. It was quite embarrassing until I finally got someone to stop and give it a jump!/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Jeff

 

[Anonymous Poster]

My Story Contribution - /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
I just jumped started this car the other day, she flagged me down... I stopped, but I was behind the white line in the turn lane, behind her none the less!! Hmm...

Yep, this lady was turning in the turn lane on a 5 lane road, 2 lanes in either direction, 1 center turn lane... Her car was a smaller car, dead as she sits... Shoot i thought, either shes gonna get smacked or her car is... As she proceeded to step outside the car, I turned on my emergency flashers, the light turned green in the adjacent lanes... Oh what a mess! I got out and walked up to her, asked if she was ok. She said the car just died.

Hmm... As cars passing us at 40mph, and seeing nothing but other car headlights cause its dark now /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif, and her cars flashers are dead to. I assume dead battery. She says she just replaced it 4 hours ago. ok.. I say dead charging system. At this time, shes yacking and yacking and yada yada (you know how it goes) and I'm like looking over my shoulder for the other guy, while running back to the truck to grab the jumper cables.

I can't push the car cause its on a hill, the only thing I thought was best is to jump the sucker, start it and get it the heck off the road before I become a statistic. I thought about pushing her with my truck bumper, but she seemed the whiney type and that wouldn't work /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif. Shut my truck off (Dodge Diesel, dual batteries), open hood, give her the lead cables, tell her to *NOT* touch those ends together, I do the connecting steps (like above).

While shes still yacking and carrying on about why the new battery isn't working, I grab the final connection and tell her to stand back, connect it to the cars frame/strut bolt for negative, tell her to start it. Zooom! it goes. I immediately reverse the connection steps, and tell her to get off the road and go park it on the side, watch traffic and don't turn on the lights or you'll kill it again.

I run back to the truck, shut the hood, dump the cables in the bed, wait for green turn light, proceed to pull in behind her at the side of the road.

WHEW.... And this all happened within about 3 mins!
Talk about getting your heart rate up. /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif

I guess the funny part about this thinking back, I'm glad I did something, instead of others just ignoring and driving around her. Her yacking and carrying on is enough to well.... haha
I told her to leave the car there and call someone to pick you up, its not going anywhere, unless you recharge the battery, get a new battery or tow the thing.

I dunno, I guess it just hit me funny later, that she didn't have a single clue as to what to do, and all she could do was yack yack yack about how she got ripped on a new battery. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif I was about to say, Hey lady.... Your lucky your alive and didn't get T-boned!?

When I started to leave she thanked me and off I go.
A good ending none the less, noone got hurt, and it could've been worse, luckily it wasn't. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color=blue>"Actually, I think it (to which battery the positive terminal is first connected) doesn't make a lot of difference as long as the final connection is made away from the battery so that any spark will not be near either battery."</font color=blue>

I remember asking my Dad about why it mattered which positive I first connected. Being the old farm kid that he was, he gave me a very common sense answer. He said his way you only made one circle between the cars and you ended up at the car you needed to start. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I don't doubt he had a better reason than that but, given he was being questioned by someone who could still show his age on his fingers, that was the one he gave me. It made sense then and it makes sense now. Most importantly, I remembered it. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif/w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

If you want something to get your heart rate up, watch 2 nurses in a hospital parking lot "jump starting" a car.
A few months back the battery in my dalin's car died, in the garage, and naturally the wrong way for convenience. When she got to work, 2 hours late, she explained that her car had "coded" in the garage, and she had "hit the CODE button" to get me out of bed, and that we had done cpr without conversion, and then applied the paddles. Fortunately, the paddles resulted in conversion, whereupon she took the car immediately to the "transplant center" where a battery transplant was performed. She further informed her co-worker, an MD department head, that the transplant had been successful, with the only complecation being a loss of memory to the car's stereo.
As she told me this story, her explanation made complete sense, from her perspective. I then asked why, since I pay for motor club service, she hadn't simply called them, and was informed I had a better response time to the CODE.
I have since performed a jumper cable extracion form my dalin's car trunk, as I don't have a lot of confidence in her performing the "procedure" on her own.
She has also informed me her hospital security department jumps dead batterys in the parking lot for free, and discourages employees from doing it on their own. Gee, I wonder why?

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color=blue>"If you want something to get your heart rate up, watch 2 nurses in a hospital parking lot "jump starting" a car."</font color=blue>

I actually happened did that once and it did get my heart rate up quite a bit, but I think it had more to do with the short uniforms and white hose. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Cute little thing in a short white outfit, with a cute little white hat on top & cute little white shoes, with a nice bounce to the setp, Gary, those days are LONG GONE!

 

[BigDave]

The question is at the end, but first a story. (Just in case ya'll find me long winded.)

My wife left her dome light on last Friday night and she realized Saturday morning her battery was dead when she wanted to go shopping. I was working in the basement, so she took my car. Sunday she reminded me to give her car a jump start so she could go to work on Monday. We go out to the garage, and she pops her hood & I pop my hood. I've owned my car for 18 months, and this is the first time I've popped my hood. Now this is sad, because I used to be car guy and did all of my maintenance & repairs even to the point of tearing apart a 4wd transfer case or doing my own brake jobs. Those days are long gone now. Anyway, I start gazing at my engine, the cylinder head, the air filter, the radiator, the struts, etc., but the battery didn't jump out at me. Maybe it's a small battery and under this shroud...no, but that's a large fuse box. Maybe its mounted low, partially obscured...no, can't see it anywhere. No I'm feeling really stupid, I mean REALLY STUPID. I can't find the battery? Now there's not a solar panel on my roof, so there must be a battery somewhere around here. Now my wife is helping me find the battery, this is really sad. Wait a minute, a long lost nueron fires and I remember from a car magazine review that the battery is located in the trunk to improve the weight distribution. I go to the trunk, remove the cover for the spare and hooray...I do have a battery. So, we break out the cables and connect her red lead to my wife's positive, then the other red lead to my positive. My wife connects her black lead to her battery (oops) and then I go to connect my black lead to the frame. Uh-oh, there is no exposed metal - everything is painted. So, I know I'm being bad, but I connect to my negative lead on the battery, and let her start up her car. No problems, her car starts right up. I'm not sure if there is any real risk, since I attached the final lead to the good battery.

Now my question: Let's assume my trunk mounted battery is dead, and I want to follow the proper procedure, I don't have any exposed metal to which I could attach my negative lead. I would assume the safest method would be to attach the last lead to the engine-block of the healthy car. Agree or disagree? Why?

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color=blue>"I'm not sure if there is any real risk, since I attached the final lead to the good battery."</font color=blue>

Since I seem to have started this I guess I ought to step to the plate on this one. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

First, I'm not comfortable with creating sparks near EITHER battery in a jump starting situation. You're a braver man than me for doing that.

Second, if I were in a roadside situation as you describe, I would likely go with the method first espoused here wherein the procedure becomes dead +, good +, dead - and, finally, the remaining negative cable end to a ground on the running vehicle AWAY FROM the good battery so any sparks created won't be near enough to any gases to cause a problem.

Lastly, if I owned a car as you describe I'd probably drill into a ground in the trunk and put in a large, conductive bolt or screw. Yeah, even on a new car... /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Just wait till ya run into one of the cars where you have to remove the front bumper to find the battery between the bumper and left front tire. The genius who designed that must be a PHD.

 

[MDNick]

A post hole digger? Sorry Franz. Maybe he was at least a HPHD. (hydraulic)./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif Nah, he probably had the old manual ones.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

The car I bought for my Mom last time around reminded me once again why I like trucks. When it came time to change the battery in that car I found I had to remove a support rod to just get to the battery then had to flip it on end to get it out. The exact reverse of that procedure was needed to install the new one. I had to set it on the battery tray on end then work that end under the fender, secure it, then replace the support rod.

Oh, yeah... I had to stop the removal and installations each with the battery at about a 45 degree angle to access the negative terminal. I couldn't get to it with the battery flat on the tray and the cable wasn't long enough to allow you to get the battery on it's end before you addressed that task.

I was just happy I got as good a battery as I could so I wouldn't have to do this again for a few more years. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[hazmat]

Big dave,

RTFM (Read the Freaking Manual) My dad's Benz has the battery under the rear seat, it has lugs under the hood for jump starting

 

[MikePA]

My wife's MGB had 2 six volt batteries underneath the package tray behind the front seats. Of all the problems we had with that car, I can not recall ever having to jump start it. Eventually, we replaced the the two six volt batteries with a 12v in the trunk.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Mike, that was a holdover from the A model. At least on the A, you could easily jump start or charge the batterys from under the bonnet by attaching at the starter switch. Those silly B models employed the Americanised twist key for starter system, so they were probably a bigger pain to jump start.
BTW, there was a small 12 volt Delco battery that fit well in the right battery carrier. Adding water to the battery was always fun too.
A roadsters RULE!

 

[MikePA]

I always thought the MGAs were a better looking car (kind of a mini-XK120) than the MGBs. Never cared for the Midgets. They were too small for me anyway. The B was the first car my wife ever purchased, I just got to maintain it! /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif She was the second owner of this 1974 MGB (pre-ugly bumpers) and kept it for 10 years. When we had our first daughter, my wife soon realized that the B wasn't all that practical, so we sold it.

The 12v in the trunk was a standard maint free Group 24 (I think) battery in a plastic battery box.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The 57, 1500cc A was the first car I bought, used, and I still have it tucked in the nose of one of my storage trailers. People with a pull knob to activate the starter always used to look down their noses at the twist key vehicles.
The A was a nice car, but I really loved the TD & TF roadsters, just never ould get my hands on one I could afford to own.
Ahhh, early mornings, on the way to work with your feet roasting and snotsickles freezing from your nose, now that's driving.

 

[BigDave]

It comes with a manual? Where do you think they put that?/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[bgott]

I've installed a lot of group 24s in MGBs. A little hammer work on the right battery box and they fit right in.

 

[wetside2]

Franz,
I had a 1956 MGA. Your desciption of the drive to work is exactly how I remember it too. Another fond memory of the A was the leaky rag top and rattling side curtins. In the winter the red leather seats were constantly damp and the dye would soak through my pants and turn my briefs pink. What a car! I sure wish I still had mine.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

My ragtop had been replaced by a vinyl top, and the rattles were part of the enjoyment in a car without a radio.
Did you have the flipup side curtains or the sliders? I have both, and mamaged to replace the sliding half of mine with lucite for a better fit.
My roadster has green seats, so bleeding underwear wasn't a problem.
Morris Garages built a fun product!
Then again, mayhaps the nightmares have faded from my memory. I do recall the night some sumbich ripped off my tool kit by opening the trunk and helping himself.