AAA Couldn't jump start dead battery

Either the portable unit was not up to par or, as I have seen happen, there was a poor connection to the battery. But I wonder why the XLT wasn't just pushed out of the garage to make it possible to get a god jump on it.

Charlie

I agree with Charlie. I've had the same experience where either the "power source" was just not powerfully enough, or the connections made with the jumper cables (or the cables themselves) were not good enough. When a more powerfully "source" was used, they started and ran fine after that.

-- Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts:

"What, sir, is the use of militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. . . Whenever Government means to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise a standing army upon its ruins." -- Debate, U.S. House of Representatives, August 17, 1789

The battery is dead, pure and simple. Those portablel power bricks are just small batteries, and are meant to *help* a low battery; when the battery is *dead*, those portable gizmos will put as much current into trying to charge the battery as they will trying to start the engine. They just don't have the oomph to do both jobs. I'd have the battery slow charged, then checked to see if it's been damaged. Good luck!

Yes this is what I concluded. The battery was so deeply discharged too much of the portable unit's power was being soaked into the battery. If the fellow wasn't in such a rush to be on his way, I think we would have thought about disconnecting the ground cable from the battery and clamping the portable unit's negative to the engine block. I bet that would have done the trick.

It would only have cost $20 to have a cab drive down into the garage and jump start the truck, true enough, but I've been paying those monthly charges to the Allstate Motor Club for a few years now, and I figured it was time to get my money's worth.

A good two hour drive and then a trickle charge overnight seems to have brought the battery back to new condition. But now I have a pair of jumper cables, just in case.

Thanks to you all.

Rick Bryan

Aha! was the culprit AAA or was it Allstate? Possibly the guy had contracts with both outfits.

I hope you got the best available cables. I learned a long time ago that the bargain ones or no bargain.

Heavy copper wire, good sturdy clamps that will also fit battery side terminals if needed (you never know where the next jump is coming from) , and long enough to reach across two engine compartments because you just know that if you are in a parking lot the other guy has to pull up so that the batteries are on the far sides from each other.

Charlie

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004 13:52:15 -0500, "Charlie Bress"

Yes I'm in the Allstate MC, for better or worse. I'm sure you're right; the repair facility probably has a hook with both. So they probably got paid for coming out, and really didn't get the job done. I thought about calling "Tony's Tow" just to explain why their portable unit didn't work, but odds are they don't care, I suppose. Not worth my time and effort. I don't know if Allstate MC would either.

I had a choice of $110 20' #2 wire cables, $39 12' #6 (with side clamp alternatives), or the $9.99 special. Of course I went for the middle ground, and I hope I don't regret it one day.

I imagined a product, possibly because I've seen it somewhere, maybe, which would work like a sports hot pack: unwrap the product, smash it a few times with your fist to mix the magic indredients, and you've got enough electrical amperage to turn over the engine one or two times. Someday I'll bet; perhaps spent uranium packets? . . .Bright idea; people driving around with deadly radioactive metal in their trunks next to the Snapple!