I was wonder if someone could explain how one might jump another dead car using a Ford Transit van as the live vehicle? The battery is under the driver’s seat and while they have put a positive terminal under the hood they only have a ground post under the hood and not and actual negative terminal. …

Take the jumper cables and connect them to the POS & NEG in the Transit van. At the dead battery, connect the red clamp to POS battery post and the black clamp to a bracket somewhere on the engine. The reason for this is, when a battery goes dead it creates hydrogen gas. If you make the last conne…

If I understand this, there is a ground post under the hood of the Transit. This would be the same as a negative post. The frame of the vehicle is connected to the negative terminal of the battery. Since there is a positive post under the hood, you use the positive post and the ground to jump th…

Tester and George are both correct. Back in the days of all metal cars (chrome bumpers) I one jumped a car using only one jumper cable by pushing the cars together so their bumpers touched.

I used to jump cars with metal bumpers if I had to park behind the other car by pressing bumpers together and connecting my cables together end to end to span the distance betwee tne positive posts. Had to be careful in those days, there were positive ground cars and trucks as well as 6 volt vehicl…

Ah, memories of metal bumpers… :smiley:

I bet the Transit’s owners manual explains how to jump a car.

I would think to Transit manual explains how to get the Transit jumpstarted , not how to use the Transit to jumpstart another car Think about it . . . I can’t recall any owner’s manual that explains how to use YOUR car to jumpstart another car with a dead battery It’s all about the car mentioned i…

Yup. The battery in my Olds is under the seat so when I put the charger on it I just use the positive post under the hood and a metal part for the ground. OTOH, I don’t like jumping a car with my car so I now carry a portable jump start unit. Then you don’t have to worry about your vehicle at all…

Yes. With cars so loaded with computers today, I’d never jump start another car. Too much chance of damaging the electronics in one of the cars, and thousands in repairs.

Using Transit van to jump start another vehicle

Maintenance/Repairs

George_San_Jose1 April 23, 2016, 3:38am 4

There shouldn’t be an electrical difference between a “ground post” and a “ground terminal”. They both should be connected to the battery negative post by a substantial size wire and/or the chassis. Tester is correct that the final connection shouldn’t be near either of the batteries.

Topic		Replies	Views
Jumpstart: Why does BLACK get grounded and not hooked to NEGATIVE on dead battery? Maintenance/Repairs	47	260101	January 20, 2025
Battery boosting debate Maintenance/Repairs	31	2563	March 13, 2010
Why Does Jump Starting the WRONG way work? Maintenance/Repairs	11	6622	February 5, 2014
How to jump a car Maintenance/Repairs	17	1647	December 12, 2007
Jumping a car gone wrong help Maintenance/Repairs	27	7790	July 3, 2015

Using Transit van to jump start another vehicle

Related topics