Had to jumpstart someone's vehicle tonight. Now, I've long been told to hook up in order of + healthy, + disabled, - healthy, then
-disabled...and that you never wanna go to the ground terminal on the battery of the disabled vehicle bcause of potential hydrogen gas given off in the charging of a lead acid battery, and that could be rather hazardous when that inevitable spark comes from making tha tlast connection--that it's best to find another grounding point away from the battery.
Well, tonight, none of the other darned grounding points (2 hooks i found on the engine, and a bracket of the alternator) on teh disabled vehicle seemed to ground worth a shit.
The disabled vehicle was pretty old (something like a Toyota Corolla maybe?) and beat up and the metal on these things was not the cleanest stuff you'd ever seen, but event with wiggling the contacts around and clamping harder i didn't seem to make much traction.... Finally the dude who owned the disabled car hooked up the - directly to the - terminal and things started working of course, and no one blew up.
So, what do y'all think was the deal? Are engine hooks not tied to engine ground these days? Or was i lacking a wire brush to clean them up? And what aobut the alternator bracket? Or is there something else that was going on?
Best Regards,
-- Todd H.
2001 Legacy Outback Wagon, 2.5L H-4 Chicago, Illinois USA