Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watcgl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!dmmartindale
From: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Baby it's cold outside
Message-ID: <1045@watcgl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 23-Jan-85 15:02:48 EST
Article-I.D.: watcgl.1045
Posted: Wed Jan 23 15:02:48 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Jan-85 06:04:54 EST
References: <2049@pegasus.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 24
Summary: 

In article <2049@pegasus.UUCP> mzal@pegasus.UUCP (Mike Zaleski) writes:
>> My car recently refused to start despite a boost from a sympathetic and
>> very lively battery in my friends car. ... if my battery was being boosted
>> and yet the car refused to start, what are the most likely reasons for
>> this ... ?
>
>Anyway, my father (being an electrical engineer) decided that the
>Pontiac needed a bit more charging.  So I sat in the big Dodge,
>keeping it idling fast for about 15 minutes with jumpers hooked up
>to my battery.  After this treatment, I again tried my car and it
>started.
>
>Moral of the story: Sometimes it takes a long time to jump start.

There are two possible ways to "jump start" a car: either charge up the
car's own battery, or just use the other car's battery for starting current.

Starting directly from the other car's battery can be done, even if the
car's own battery is quite dead, but it requires GOOD jumper cables - heavy
wire, and good connections at the clips, to carry the full starting current
without too much voltage drop.

With cheap jumper cables, your only alternative is to wait until the
car's own battery has been recharged enough to provide most of the current.