Re: Jump start question

Posted by Jim McDermaid On 2012/8/14 19:34:48

My take on this question:

When jumping a 6 volt car, modern light weight, 12 volt jumper cables probably won't convey enough Amps to ctank the dead car.

Connect the cables + to +, - to - directly battery to battery and verify the polarity before connecting the final cable and be certain the jumper cables have the same color clamp on the same wire at both ends.

If you are using light duty jumper cables watch the temperature and don't burn a good paint job with a molten hot cable.

If the dead battery will take a charge and hold it, I see no problem of having the engine running on the good car as the generator is regulated and won't see any more load than normal.

The good battery will deliver 6 volts at the rated cranking Amps (1000 CCA?) and go lower if the dead battery is accepting the charge.

Sometimes a long dead battery will develope an internal short in one or more cells you should watch for this

You should be watchful of causing sparks anywhere near vented liquid filled car batteries as hydrogen is produced while charging and it can explode.

Here in Arizona where the temperature is 116 outside a battery will go from working fine to totally dead after a stop at the grocery store as I found out last sunday, with no warning.

Jim