HELP! Any risk to day driver when jumping

I have a daily driver, '97 Explorer, that I use to jump my loose engine which I am trying to get running. I run 2 ga jumper cables from batt pos / neg to positive bolt on loose engine starter bolt and have grounded on starter mounting bolt. I can use neg ground on engine as opposed to previous.

Where I've seen my previous error was that I did not think of the plainly obvious to run a small jump wire from my positive battery post to the positive post on the ignition coil to make the spark.

So, the question is will running the wire to the ignition coil cause or have any danger to my daily driver???? - - feel free to let me know if this is the dumb question of the day. I just cant screw up anything on the daily driver

Some of the newer cars have computers that can be damaged if you jump another car, I'm told. I gave my ex wife's car a jump a couple of months ago and the digital voltmeter on the dash of my car has not read as high as it did before that. It used to read 13.8 volts now it goes to 13.2 and that is it. Maybe a coincidence, but it started doing that the day I jumped her car.

Call your dealer and ask them, some of this new car stuff is not like the ones we grew up with. I just saw on TV the other day they sell rubber insulated gloves for people who own hybids so you don't electricute yourself when you remove a battery cable !

Give me the old days anytime.

Don

I hear ya Don.... I dont know if Ive had my head in the sand or what but cars nowadays appearantly dont have an ignition coil, distributor, and wires???? They....from what I understand... each spark plug has it's own coil and some cars have two plugs per cylinder. - They do anything to over-engineer something for more efficiency, but I read somewhere that the 1960 Ford Falcon was liked so much for it's (approx) 30mpg, and my 1982 VW diesel got over 50 mpg.....SO why is it that decades decades and decades later we still get what we have and are told it's the best?

I'm a traditionalist; I like some things the way they were. You guys, and hopefully myself soon, have breathed life into engines made half a century ago, or more, and they still work just as good as my M1. - - sorry for the soap box commentary

Bather than taking a chance with the fragile electronics on the dailey I would just take the battery out while jumping the project motor...

Heck Fuzz, that's the easiest, most common-sensical thing I should have thought of!
I guess I can just un-hook the daily pos/neg then jump off; prolly shouldnt even need to physically remove.....

You know, I'm new here and it seems that althoug two decades ago I worked on old American muscle, I was a remove & replace guy. - didn't worry of "how" things could work together, just painted, chromed, upgraded. In the last month or so of an hour here and there I have learned sooo much more about old cars I think it's leading me to be a better mechanic. I feel I should read one of those "Zen and the art of-" books.

Thanks to whoever, however you've helped!

New cars are different and a big pain to me. My wife has a Chevy HHR Panel truck and it wouldn't start one day. It was still under warranty but I just jumped it and it would then crank but would not start. Found a fuse blown so I replace it and it then started but the check engine light stayed on. Took it to the dealer and they could not find anything wrong with it and said it had more codes in it than anything they had seen. They cleared the codes and told me to drive it and bring it back if it done it again. That was 2 years ago and has been alright ever since. I guess these new ones have a mind of their own.

meyek91974 said:

Heck Fuzz, that's the easiest, most common-sensical thing I should have thought of!
I guess I can just un-hook the daily pos/neg then jump off; prolly shouldnt even need to physically remove.....

You know, I'm new here and it seems that althoug two decades ago I worked on old American muscle, I was a remove & replace guy. - didn't worry of "how" things could work together, just painted, chromed, upgraded. In the last month or so of an hour here and there I have learned sooo much more about old cars I think it's leading me to be a better mechanic. I feel I should read one of those "Zen and the art of-" books.

Thanks to whoever, however you've helped!

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I first got my hands greasey in the mid 1950s and have built many a hot rod since. But I am so intimidated by this modern technology I won't work on my 01 Blazer for fear I'll mess something up...[S

when you jump with newer computer controlled cars you must never leave the car with the computer and good battery running while trying to start the dead car...... hook up your booster cables and leave them hooked up while the good car is running to charge the dead battery, let it charge for 10 to 15 min, then shut off the good car leaving the cables hooked up and try to start the dead one..... what happens is that when you attempt to start the dead car with the good car still running, there is one alternator that is charging at full capacity cuz it sees a dead battery.... and when the dead car finally fires up that alternator ALSO sees a dead battery and will ALSO charge at full capacity, and for this split second you have two alternators pumping full charge to the system and this is where modern computers and electronic components tend to cry for help. with modern computer controlled cars things will fry with two alternators equaling 24Volts..... hope this makes sense

just remember only one car running at a time.... and youll be fine!!