Talk:Jump start (vehicle)

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An easier way to start a car with a dead battery is to push it down a road and attain enough speed, put it in 2nd or 1st gear and then engage the engine with the clutch. This might not work with automatic transmission, and some people say it should not be done with cars with catalytic converters. I wonder why. Is this method of starting a car called a jump start also?

Push starting is covered in Manual transmission driving technique, under the section entitled "Starting the vehicle without an electric starter". The dire warnings about catalytic converter damage are bogus. --KazKylheku 22:35, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Would you agree with me when I say a note should be added about the quality of the jumper cables used? I had plenty of problems jump-starting my truck until I found out that the wire in the cable was 2mm thick (the rest was insulation to make it look thick. I solved the problem by buying 6 meters 4mm thick copper cable and cutting it in 2m long pieces that I stranded together and soldered to the alligator clips of my old jumpers. When buying such cables, care should be taken by taking a look at the thickness of the conductor (by looking under the cover on the clip) to make sure it is thick enough. For a reference, 2mm thick cable is used to wire domestic sockets and 8mm thick cable is used on 180A welding power sources (I had komayo brand cables with 2mm thick wire in them that wasn't even soldered to the clip and now I have 12mm thick, not counting the insulation on them, soldered cables that are a little bulky but get the job done and were cheap to make, since I only had to buy some wire)

Contents

[edit] Cleanup

I see several things wrong wiht this article. Here's a short list

  1. It talks about push starting more than it does jump starting
  2. It reads like a how to guide

Please fix--12.72.53.246 06:13, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Cleaned up. (you know, you could fix it, too!) How does it look now? --Wtshymanski 17:14, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Push Start

I push-started a car without any assistance. So "required" is the wrong word. The car doesn't even have to be small or light, you can push it with the door open, jump in and rip out the clutch in first. 212.2.166.64 12:38, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I think single-handed push starts require very favorable conditions and in my experience generally would be too dangerous to recommend. The last time I needed a jump start was on a curving downtown residential street with moderately high traffic; the vehicle was a Dodge Ram 250 pick-up truck with a diesel engine. I wasn't about to try pushing it even with someone to steer. Often in my part of the world, dead batteries co-incide with much snow on the ground, making even a light vehicle impossible to push single-handed. I have re-phrased the statement to reflect that sometimes a single-handed push start can work. (Glad you mentioned "clutch" - the proverbial bright 12-year old might wonder why only manual transmission cars are candidates to start this way.) --Wtshymanski 14:46, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Voltages

Should it be mentioned that some older cars have a positive chassis (frame) connection, and that care should be taken when jump starting as to connect the polarities correctly. And that the cars can not touch as this will change the connection circuitry, thus shorting something out (I'd have to think about it before making a more specific statement here). My parent's 1970 VW had its positive battery connected to the frame.IanCarmack (talk) 16:09, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

It's mentioned under Jump start (vehicle)#Voltage problem - does it need much more emphasis than that? Wikipedia isn't supposed to sound like a how-to manual,I agree if I was giving step-by-step instructions and cautions I'd make a more significant point about those few rare positive ground vehicles still out there (though chances are if you run into a vintage Bug on the street that needs a boost, the owner will be well aware of the issue). --Wtshymanski (talk) 16:34, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
Yea you're probably right, the operator of the positive frame connection should know about this. And you are right, this is not an instruction manual. I'm new to this so thanks for the discussion. IanCarmack (talk) 03:45, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] To jumpstart

Jumpstart is inside teacher computer.My daddy computer don,t have because this computer is not same to download more. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.111.51.123 (talk) 05:44, 13 April 2008 (UTC)