Jumping a Battery

From time to time it seems necessary to have to jump start my old Mustang. I mention it here only to give words of caution. Doing it wrong can cause damage to the car and to you. At this time I recommend not jumping cars unless you have no other alternative. Instead, get a battery charger.

When jumping a car you need some jumper cables and a second car or battery. Connect the positive post on both cars with the one cable. Connect the negative of the power source battery with the second cable. Attach the other end of that cable to a ground on the block of your Mustang, not to the negative post on its battery. Why is that recommended. Batteries produce hydrogen gas that can ignite from a spark. By clipping the negative end to the block hopefully any sparks are far enough away from the battery not to cause any explosions.

I do not recommend jumping a V8 block with a smaller anything. If you do use a smaller engine, DO NOT LEAVE the cables attached any longer than necessary. I hate to admit what happened to me one time. I have jumped Mustangs more times than I can remember. After setting all winter, starting an old Mustang can be hard. A little extra juice from your street car always seemed to help the situation. My street car was a 3000 GT, V6. My Mustang wouldn't start. It would turn over slowly but would not start. I ran the my Shelby battery down trying to start it. So I hooked up the two cars with battery cables. And this time I left them on longer than I normally would. Perhaps a little frustration clouding my common sense. Still wouldn't start. I unhooked the cables and put my tools away.  The next day I had a club car show to attend. My Shelby still wouldn't start but I needed to be there to assist. I got in my 3000 GT, turned the key and heard a KABOOM. The battery in my 3000 GT blew up. Not a good thing to happen.

Here let me tell you what to do if you have this misfortune. Water will not wash the acid away. Baking soda neutralizes the acid. So I made up a solution and rinsed the area down numerous times. I went to NAPA and got some spray on cleaner. I cleaned it numerous times. Went to the show and did it again when I returned. And I did it again the next day and the next day and the next day. It was a week or so before I realized my 3000 GT had a serious problem. Trust me, buy a battery charger, don't use your other car to jump anything or anyone else's car.

So what happened to the battery in my 3000 GT. It's speculation, but the V8 in my Shelby pulled a lot of power out of the smaller 3000 GT system. I suspect it made that smaller battery work overtime. Remember I said batteries produce hydrogen gas and a spark will ignite it. The explosion literally blew the top of the battery off. Getting it out of my 3000 GT was also a challenge. When I replaced the battery, the dealer wanted the old battery as a core. Right! I wrapped it up in plastic, set it a plastic tray with a wooden pop crate for support and took it in to the dealer. I cautioned him about unwrapping it. Of course, he wanted to see what I brought in. Needless to say he carefully closed it when he realized what I was telling him was correct.