Club 80-90 Forums

right been researching this after years of doing it my way, i see there's other option's for jumping from vehicle to vehicle
jump leads from + to + and - to -

or + to + and - on the good battery to the body work (earth point)

on a slightly different note im looking in to way's of jumping or charging my starter batt when out and about.

using the leisure to momentarily jump the starter etc

There is one way to jump start and that is Positive to Positive and Negative to Negative. The Positive is the live side of the battery and Negative is the Earth side and you can connect to anything connected to either of these points as long as the thing you connect to is capable of carrying the current. This is simple enough on the earth side because that is the car itself but on the other side it is not quite as easy as the cabling away from the Positive gets smaller and not so able to carry the current required.

Jump starting modern cars is not advised in a lot of cases due to surge damaging the electronics.

On the other item you raised I suggest you connect it to and alternator

i think the idea of connecting to the chassis instead of the batt neg came from damaging the electronic's or battery ? if connected to the battery, and being an issue with explosive gas being given off ?? i heard new car's were'nt keen! on jumping, but it sounds like i should keep connecting to all four terminals as normal.

im talking about emergency starting/charging if the batt has no charge

The only time I ever saw a battery explode due to gases/sparking was on a multi battery charger station in a garage about 40 years ago. Most batteries are sealed these days to prevent this type of accident

i blew up a battery by foolishly grinding metal next to where it was charging. it was very scary as i was covered in acid and deaf for a minute but fortunately, i was at least sensible enough to be wearing goggles for the grinding.

on the different note, in the camper, i have the main battery under the normal seat, and another similar battery under the drivers seat (lhd) which i use as one of the two leisure batteries ( the other is a proper leisure battery ). the setup has worked well so far and on the occasions i have had a flat starter battery, i have just slid the seats forward and used the jump leads between the two batteries under the seats .
up and running again in a couple of minutes with a smug smile on my face as i didnt even have to step outside.

the doka setup is a bit different as the original battery under the seat does everything but the starter because now it is a diesel, the battery for the starter is in the engine bay. that one is only connected to the system by a relay in the engine bay with a trigger from the ignition. ( are you still with me?) that battery never goes flat. the trouble is if the main battery goes flat, there is not enough power to switch the relay and so start the car even though the starter battery is fine.

A point worth mentioning.Never use a proper leisure battery to jump start.It kills them.

using the leisure to momentarily jump the starter

perfectly correct to go + to + , - to chassis that's what you do with booster packs it's in the instructions, thereby bypassing the battery which may be a duffer - after all that's why you are jumping it - personally I find the door catch to be a very good and effective earth and convenient to the battery in a petrol van, on cars I find the top of the damper is usually a good earth

but most important of all jump start don't bump start as that may just wreck your pinion head and new ones are £1300 now

As mine is a diesel and the battery is in the engine bay, via some chunky cabling from the starter battery I've added an Anderson connector just under my rear bumper.

This enables me to give or receive a jump start without opening the engine bay, bliss!

Just don't do what I did once, + to -!!

It was dark, I was late, Someone, PO, had used red tape to wrap the earth........
You have about 5 seconds before everything goes red hot & the clamp handles melt!!

A bit OT, but on the subject of battery leads, a nice upgrade for diesel T3 owners over the rather crap original ones is to grab a set from a Mk3 Golf. Some Golf petrols have the starter behind the engine so the cable is plenty long enough when swapped onto a T3. The nice thing is the terminals are much more robust and have 2 M6 studs and 2 M6 tappings for additional connections:

^^^^^^^^^ Top Gear Top Tip ...... good one Andy

all good info

has anyone set up an isolator for there starter battery ?
im thinking it could be good for security (removable key) and for safety, the batt terminals with the quick release screw/knob look's good if it's not a cheap one, but the golf one's look good im wanting something with more space for extra's had made up a little connection box that had short wire's straight to the batt and stud's to connect everything extra to, plus some short cable with the anderson connector on for the jump cables.

if i have a vsr on my starter batt an i want to use the batt the vsr is charging to jump the starter when it's flat, do i need to disable the vsr when jumping?

can you buy those little powerful batt's that are in the booster pac box's seperate and mount one some where? it could be charged from the engine?

Er.. one would have to ask why is the starter battery going flat?? as if you have the les' batt, then things should be running off that rather than the starter one..

usually it's fine sometimes, only a couple, it has had issues ! can't find the prob yet, i also want to be able to jump other vehicles when needed, which is often, with my off roader, because my 240v charger is built in i will use the new jump leads to charge other vehicles from that too