[DeTomaso] NPC - jump starting a car

Sun Sep 1 17:18:14 EDT 2013

I have no doubts that your way works.  Sometimes people do things a certain
way because it is learned at a young age, and just becomes habit.  

When I was young I was told that when you connect booster cables, do it in a
way that never creates a spark near the top of a battery.  Reason for that
was because batteries give off hydrogen gas when being charged or
discharged.  Hydrogen is explosive (remember Hindenburg?), and when
connecting anything to the battery terminals that create a spark may also
create a fire or explosion.

My preferred way is to first remove and clean battery connections on both
dead and good batteries.  Then connect positive cable to dead battery, then
other end of positive cable to good battery.  Take the ground cable, and
attach it to a good ground on the engine of boosting vehicle, and then
connect other end to good ground point on engine of dead battery vehicle.
If car will not crank properly, disconnect ground cable from boosting car
and start the boosting vehicle.  Reconnect ground cable on boosting car.

One thing that most people get wrong is how to remove a battery.  You
disconnect the negative first, then the positive.  Reason for this is simply
because once the negative is removed, you can remove the positive cable
without any fear of wrench slipping and hitting the body of the car,
shorting the battery to ground.  If the negative cable is removed, you can
hold the wrench from the positive connection directly against the body,
chassis even the engine and it will not short out the battery.  

I too am basing this on near 40 years licensed auto mechanic experience.

doug

From: michael at michaelshortt.com [mailto:michaelsavga at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, September 1, 2013 3:08 PM
To: Doug Scott
Cc: Tomas Gunnarsson; detomaso at poca.com; Charles McCall; Larry - Ohio Time
Corp.
Subject: RE: [DeTomaso] NPC - jump starting a car

I learned it that way and it has always worked.

As a mnemonic device, it is easy to share with non technical types.

>From a layman's non electrical engineer perspective,  here is my assumption.

Connecting the red (positive) on the boosting car and then the Black
(negative) would ensure that
the person would hopefully know where each color goes, by connecting the
Black first, I'm guessing that this ground connection would "join" the two
cars so that when the Red was connected last that there might not be a surge
that could damage electronics or cause a battery to explode.

It has always worked and except for my race car's gel cell battery to deep
cycle  battery jumper plug (which connects them both at the exact same time
and is used on the grid to prolong battery life), I have never had a bad
boosting experience ( exploding batteries,  melted cables, or  fried
electronics).

I'm sure their are others  here capable of a more eloquent explaination of
why it works, mine is 40+ years of practical experience.

Michael Shortt

On Sep 1, 2013 1:22 PM, "Doug Scott" <doug at pickbbs.com
<mailto:doug at pickbbs.com> > wrote:

I would be interested in hearing the logic behind "RBBR".

doug

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at poca.com <mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com>
[mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com <mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com> ] On
Behalf
Of michael at michaelshortt.com <mailto:michael at michaelshortt.com> 
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2013 8:18 AM
To: Larry - Ohio Time Corp.
Cc: Charles McCall; detomaso at poca.com <mailto:detomaso at poca.com> ; Tomas
Gunnarsson
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] NPC - jump starting a car

My own addition to the conversation is to use "Rubber" when hooking up.

Get your minds out of the gutter.  :-)

RBBR

Connect Red and Black to one car first and Black, then Red to the other car
second. Disconnect in the same manner backwards.
This will protect your electronics,  etc.

Remember "RBBR"

Michael Shortt
On Aug 30, 2013 5:24 AM, "Larry - Ohio Time Corp" <larry at ohiotimecorp.com
<mailto:larry at ohiotimecorp.com> >
wrote:

> Charlie,
>
> Putting the jumper on the chassis is fine but the starter is grounded
> to the motor block, and that is grounded to the chassis. A lot of
> places as Doug said, for a bad connection. Putting the (-) jumper
> cable on the block, not to EZ in a Pantera, eliminates many of the
> potential bad connections.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Larry (sparks) - Cleveland
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: detomaso-bounces at poca.com <mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com>
[mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com <mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com> ] On
> Behalf Of Charles McCall
> Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 7:19 AM
> To: Tomas Gunnarsson
> Cc: Pantera list serve
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] NPC - jump starting a car
>
> I tried both. I began by grounding to the chassis, and when I got
> desperate I connected directly to the terminals of the bad battery. No
difference.
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 12:49 PM, Tomas Gunnarsson <guson at home.se
<mailto:guson at home.se> > wrote:
>
> >  How are you jumping the car? Are you connecting the cables to the
> > terminals of the bad battery or are you grounding the donor to e.g.
> > the engine block? I would start by disconnecting both battery
> > terminals and thoroughly cleaning them.
> >
> > Tomas
> >
> > <-----Ursprungligt Meddelande----->
> >        *From: Charles McCall [charlesmccall at gmail.com
<mailto:charlesmccall at gmail.com> ]*
> > Sent: 25/8/2013 8:00:25 PM
> > To: detomaso at poca.com <mailto:detomaso at poca.com> 
> > Subject: [DeTomaso] NPC - jump starting a car
> >
> >
> > Hi all
> >
> >
> >
> > The car in question hadn't been started in literally 3 months. I
> > went to start it on Thursday and the battery was discharged. I
> > hooked a trickle charger up to it overnight, and Friday morning the car
started just fine.
> >
> >
> >
> > I drove the car during the day, had no trouble starting it on the
> > 4-5 occasions I had to start it.
> >
> >
> >
> > Today, Sunday, two days later the car wouldn't start again (I was
> > going
> to
> > move it to hook the trickle charger up to it and let it charge for a
> > week or however long it takes to completely charge). I got some
> > jumper cables and am trying to start the car but it won't turn over.
> >
> >
> >
> > When I turn the key, the interior light goes out which indicates to
> > me that the battery is discharged. I hooked up the jumper cables and
> > the car
> still
> > won't turn over (and the interior light goes out).
> >
> >
> >
> > If I turn the headlights on on the car with the dead battery, I can
> > see that the lights get noticeably brighter when connecting the
> > jumper cables so I have to believe that current is reaching the
> > battery. What can possibly
> be
> > the problem?
> >
> >
> >
> > If the connection weren't good, then the headlights wouldn't get
> brighter.
> > But on the other hand, if the connection were good then the interior
> light
> > wouldn't go out when I try engaging the starter, right?
> >
> >
> >
> > This is kind of a problem as now the dead car is blocking the good
> > car from getting out of the garage (and therefore going to work
> > tomorrow!)
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >
> >
> > Charles McCall
> > Raising Pantera Awareness Across Europe
> > 1985 DeTomaso Pantera #9375
> > <http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323>
> > http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323
> >
> >
> >
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