Jump Start Problem

[john]

I was using my Tercel to jump start another car and screwed-up something. Here is the problem. With the cables in place; positive to positive and negative to negative, I went to start the tercel. Instead of cranking, the dashboard lights went out and the tercel is dead.

Usually I start the tercel, then hook up the cables, then try to start the other car. In fact, I did that twice earlier in the day and the tercel was fine.

The Tercel battery is fine. I checked the ignition fuse and it appears fine.

Any ideas? Electical stuff is my weak subject.

thanks, john

[ARCHINSTL]

I can't help with the resolution of the problem but a possible cause of this is the way you hooked up the cables: + to + and - to -.
They should always, but ALWAYS, be hooked up with the positive to positive and the negative NOT to the dead car's negative post, but with the donor car's negative cable to a ground on the dead car.
I learned this years ago in the Army; while LONG before vehicles had computers, it was to avoid exploding batteries - which still occur to this day.

I perfected an acronym when I had so many, many, problems with the POS '69 VW Bus I was sentenced to for so many, many, years:
B 0 M B.
This meant, with me being the "my:" Black On My Bumper.
Of course, this was when cars still had metal bumpers; but B O M G is less euphonious, less catchy, and therefore harder for folks to remember.

I had occasion to use this just a couple of months ago when my clueless (now former) son-in-law tried to hook up cables from a donor car to my daughter's Pilot when the battery died in a parking lot.
Tom M.

[Petros]

you likely just have a corroded contact on the batter or ground, might have loosened when you but the cables on it. Always ground to the engine, to avoid exploding batteries.

when I was in high school a guy sunk his yacht in the marina changing his battery. It exploded, sunk the yacht, thru the owner into the water 30 ft away with a face full of burning acid. Only reason I knew about a friend was fishing from the dock and jumped in to pull the owner out. It was in the news papers, the kid was considered a hero. do not forget the power contained in the battery.

[dlb]

+1 on petros' response. i would remove the battery cables and check for corrosion on the terminals and clamps. clean all with rough sandpaper or emery cloth. put them back on and see how it goes.

i had never heard that about grounding to something other than the battery terminal. wowee.

peter, that's a hell of a story. you've got some real goldies. we should consider changing the site name to tercel4wd and peter's tales.com.

[john]

Hey Petros, DLB and "Archie"!

You guys were right on target again. I was too brain fried after spending time in the calif sun this morning to think it through. I figured I had fried my car's electrics.

I did as suggested and disconnected the battery and realized that although the battery was clamped securly to the battery post and no corrosion, the wires were loose where they clamped to the negative terminal clamp. Starts easily now.

No luck however getting the old mazda rx7 to start. That is the car I was trying to jump. The city of fresno would like it out of my driveway. I pay non-op fees on it for the last several years, but since it is not running they would like it to go away. It looks better than my daily drivers,but somone must have complained. Was going to try and get it goings this winter and sell it anyway. The last time it ran was about 2 years ago. It started normaly, stalled, and would not restart. I have fresh fuel, spark. Have not checked compression yet. Any rotary experts in our Tercel family?

Thanks again to all. john








john

[Petros]

Synth has experience with mazda, I am familiar with them, but I am not an expert. they work the same way piston engines work as far as combustion. If you have spark, and fuel, not much else to go wrong. Might try a few squirts of starter fluid on it. is there any way spark timing can get messed up? broken distr. shaft?

I also know that the rotor seals can suddenly fail all at once, usually it will still run but put out billows of bluish smoke. Not worth it, set of rotor seals area over $900. I stick with toyota thank you.