To jump start a
dead car battery, you need to have a set of jumper cables and a good car
battery. Make sure that there are no
liquids leaking from either battery. There
are five steps involved in jump starting a dead car battery.
Line both cars
up so that the batteries are close enough to one another, but so that neither
car touches one another, as shown in (figure 1). Ensure that both vehicles are in park and
turn off the engine. Turn off all
accessories like the headlights, the radio, the turn indicators, the hazard
flashers, and the windshield wipers.
WARNING! Touching parts of either car to one
another may cause an explosion.
Source: Brauer, Karl. Edmunds.com. 2003. How to jumpstart. 24 July.
Internet:
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/articles/43793/article.html.
Now that you have lined both cars up without touching each
other, you connect the jumper cables in the following order:
a
Connect one end of the Positive (+) cable to the Positive (+) post of the dead
battery.
b
Connect the other end of the Positive (+) cable to the Positive (+) post of the good
battery.
c
Connect one end of the Negative (-)
cable to the Negative (-) post of the good battery.
d
Connect the other end of the Negative (-)
cable to a good solid metal part of the engine on the dead car, as shown in
(figure 2). Usually a giant shiny nut on the engine block works.
WARNING! Connecting the Negative (-)
cable directly onto the Negative (-) post of the dead battery
may cause an explosion.
Source: Brauer, Karl. Edmunds.com. 2003. How to jumpstart. 24 July.
Internet:
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/articles/43793/article.html.
Now that you have connected the cables, you start the good
car's engine. Let the good car's engine
run for approximately one to three minutes before attempting to start the dead
car. When the dead car starts, the dead
car battery holds a charge.
Now that the
dead car battery holds a charge, you remove the jumper cables in the following
order:
a
Disconnect
the Negative (-) cable from the engine block of the car that was jump started.
b
Disconnect
the other end of the Negative (-) cable from the Negative (-) post of the good
battery.
c
Disconnect
the Positive (+) cable from the Positive (+) post of the good battery.
d
Disconnect
the other end of the Positive (+) cable from the Positive (+) post of the dead
battery.
Now that you have removed the jumper cables, you turn both cars
off. Then you restart the original dead
car to make sure that it starts.
Colby
Rockhill
ENG 200
Technical Communications
Summer 2003