# Can you push start a car with dead battery & dead alternator?

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-you-push-start-a-car-with-dead-battery-dead-alternator/166348>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [June 25, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-you-push-start-a-car-with-dead-battery-dead-alternator/166348 "2020-06-25T21:03:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![db4690](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/db4690/32/2583_2.png) [@db4690](https://community.cartalk.com/u/db4690)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-you-push-start-a-car-with-dead-battery-dead-alternator/166348/21 "2020-06-27T18:54:36Z")

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> [@SidneySpeiden](#):
>
> You don’t learn everything you need to get thru life from books, experiance is still the best teacher!

I can’t completely agree with you

There have been many times I was able to diagnose and repair a problem perfectly the first time I was faced with it, because I had read it in a textbook, and knew how the system was supposed to work, how to diagnose it and repair it

But I will agree that experience is a great teacher . . . maybe not always the best teacher, but a great one, that’s for sure

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**Author:** ![RandomTroll](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/randomtroll/32/12184_2.png) [@RandomTroll](https://community.cartalk.com/u/RandomTroll)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 10:37pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-you-push-start-a-car-with-dead-battery-dead-alternator/166348/22 "2020-06-28T22:37:17Z")

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The alternator got disconnected on my pickup, rattled loose. I started, rode down hill for a while (I was up a mountain.), but it stopped pretty soon after I hit flat ground. Fortunately all I had to do was restore the connection. OP can start, but he can’t get far, and is much likelier to be somewhere he doesn’t want it to work than where it is now. My pickup has mechanical pump.

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**Author:** ![VTMongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@VTMongo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VTMongo)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2020, 1:33am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-you-push-start-a-car-with-dead-battery-dead-alternator/166348/23 "2020-08-09T01:33:56Z")

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My 1984 land cruiser with mechanical fuel pump and carb went well over 100 miles on a dead alternator and still started when I got home. My 1999 Saab can make it about 40 miles on the battery if the alternator dies. The Saab has lots of electronics the land cruiser has few.

So if you have someone follow you and jump start your car for a few minutes every now and then you might be able to drive it to the repair shop.

[Previous page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/can-you-push-start-a-car-with-dead-battery-dead-alternator/166348.md?page=1)