charging battery (big time newbie to engines)

[tinykiss]

Hello

Ok so I have had issues with my alternator as I needed to replace some bolts and being a complete newbie at anything car related (I never had a desire to pay attention to mechanical stuff in school and well ever).....

I know need to charge my batteries. I bought a battery charger and am trying to figure out the best way to charge them. The charger says to connect just 1 clamp to whichever is not the grounded battery and the other clamp to the chassis or engine block.....would I not just connect the positive to positive and negative to negative to charge?

Thanks everyone

TK

[bosc]

Hey TK,

You can just straight connect you battery cables if you want as the Black is a ground. The manual suggests going to the chassis as it is a stronger ground than the battery terminal.

good luck,

-Bosc

[TardisDeli]

Hey TK,

Ouch, Careful dude. If you've got it charging now, go feel the batteries, if quite warm, go unplug yr charger NOW then come on back and let's have a think first. If things go wrong, it gets very expensive very quickly.

Do you have CAA membership, ask for a tech to come out to jump start your battery, maybe he can show you how to do it. Or that nice old guy down the street might know.

Is yr charger a "Smart Charger", it will say so on the package, as it costs more, but is a GOOD THING as has little computer chip to sense if you have the leads attached correctly, and will often have led lights to show green is good or red is bad, again to make sure you have it hooked up right, and that the batteries CAN take a charge. A Smart charger will also start with a strong charging power, then gradually slow down the amount of charge it puts in so that battery doesnt heat up nor over charge, and is safe to leave alone unmonitored. If not Smart, you need to think things thru a lot, and don't leave it alone (ie never overnight).

You wrote "Batteries", does this mean you have 2? This is where things get very tricky, and why I am worried for you. Are they 2 small ones installed side by side under the passenger seat? Or is one a separate "House" battery installed in the back of the van. The main reason is trying to ensure that you hook up to the correct battery, as they could be wired in series versus wired in parallel (critically important that you know), or do you have a battery isolator or solenoid; all of which make a difference.

The other thing with dual batteries is they can only charge to amount of the WORST battery, so if you think one is bad but other is OK then dont charge yet. Imagine 2 buckets of water side by side, with a hose connecting the 2 at the top, except the first bucket has a hole torn half way up, so trying to fill them both with a water hose connected via that top connection hose means that the 2nd bucket never can get more charge than the hole height of the other bucket. So if one battery is bad, you are wasting your time, and it can blow up or worse.

Also, before charging, CAREFULLY check the fluid levels in both (if they have several screw top caps on each battery to allow you to check the fluid levels, make sure you top them up with DISTILLED water, not just tap water which has chemicals in it that wear down your battery). Because if one battery cell fluid is low then you risk overheating the metal plates in the battery and boiling fluid etc, all really really bad. Battery fluid is very dangerous, open very slowly only when battery is not warm, wearing face & hand protection, if battery acid touches fabric it will eat it away, don't wanna think what it does to your eyeball & skin.

I will send u a PM Private Message with Jay's cell phone, feel free to use if you can't find a local expert (they dont need to be delica expert, just a battery wiring expert).

Regards, Christine.

[tinykiss]

We have success :)

Charged for 5 hours and fired right up. Letting it run for about an hour. Looks like my problem was just the alternator. Both sheared off so replaced and now looks good :)

Thanks for your help

TK