May well be stupid but want to get it right! Anderson Connectors

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bankz5152

bankz5152

Well-Known Member
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South London/North Kent
Afternoon,

I fitted an Anderson connector in the footwell connected to the battery so I dont have to take my bucket seat out to jump/be jumped. Also made up a set of appropriate jump leads, however actually jumping a car has been hit and miss.

My brothers Fiesta keeps draining the battery and I have to keep jumping it, mostly it works fine.

Heres what I do -

Landy off > plug in jump leads > positive lead to dead battery > negative lead to bare metal > start Landy > leave for minute or 2 > start dead car > leave for few minutes

Usually that works but sometimes but recently it hasnt worked. Well hasnt jumped the car but has provided power as all the internal lights/radio worked but the Fiesta just wouldnt start. AA came out and jumped it straight away, am I doing something wrong?
 
Last edited:
bankz5152 said:
Afternoon,

I fitted an Anderson connector in the footwell connected to the battery so I dont have to take my bucket seat out to jump/be jumped. Also made up a set of appropriate jump leads, however actually jumping a car has been hit and miss.

My brothers Fiesta keeps draining the battery and I have to keep jumping it, mostly it works fine.

Heres what I do -

Landy off > plug in jump leads > positive lead to dead battery > negative lead to bare metal > start Landy > leave for minute or 2 > start dead car > leave for few minutes

Usually that works but sometimes but recently it hasnt worked. Well hasnt jumped the car but has provided power as all the internal lights/radio worked but the Fiesta just wouldnt start. AA came out and jumped it straight away, am I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...

Make sure the bare metal you describe is well earthed onto the rest of the vehicle. Not everything is.
Often takes a bit of fiddling to get a good connection on the leads, especially on the hard metal of the negative connection.

I don't have connectors, just go off the 90 battery if I have to jump start, but it works every time. Are you sure you have connectivity where the connector is wired?
 
The fact that your system powers up the ancillary stuff but is sometimes unable to start the other car says to me that it's a resistance problem, probably just tarnish or some other poor connection.
Another cause could be inadequate cable or connector size. For jump starting you need to be able to handle the entire load of the starter motor on the other vehicle, so 50 amp connectors will do to charge the other battery but probably not carry the full load without getting "warm" and creating yet more tarnish.
 
99% Sure the 90s Anderson is connected, checked it with a mulitmeter a few weeks ago, all seemed fine.

Neg lead was in a bare part of the block, near-ish to the starter, only bit there.

Out of interest why cant the neg port on the dead battery be used?

@brian47 175amp leads & 175amp Anderson connectors, shouldnt be an issue?
 
bankz5152 said:
99% Sure the 90s Anderson is connected, checked it with a mulitmeter a few weeks ago, all seemed fine.

Neg lead was in a bare part of the block, near-ish to the starter, only bit there.

Out of interest why cant the neg port on the dead battery be used?

@brian47 175amp leads & 175amp Anderson connectors, shouldnt be an issue?
Click to expand...
A couple of reasons you use the block rather than the negative terminal.
1. You connect the +ve terminal battery first (which is standard practice), when you make the final -ve connection there is the possibility of creating a spark as the good battery dumps power in to the flat one. If you made this connection at the battery -ve terminal then any spark would be at the battery. A battery which has been charging vents hydrogen gas so if you have this spark at the battery then theoretically you could cause a small explosion as any trapped hydrogen is ignited. If you make that spark at the engine block instead there is little / no chance of igniting battery produced hydrogen as the distance is too great and the gas will have dissipated.
2. Having the jump lead -ve on the block will make a lower resistance connection to the starter motor casing than it would if you connected to the battery, if you did it at the battery then start current has to go through the battery negative lead to the chassis / block which will increases the resistance path and reduces the voltage at the starter slightly so it won't spin as fast as it could do.
 
bankz5152 said:
Ahhh that makes perfect sense then! Guess I'll hunt around for a better -ve block point! Though everything else I had done correctly?
Click to expand...

With a tractor, I usually attach the black lead to the bolt where the battery neg lead attaches to the chassis. Obviously not so good if the negative lead is very short, you will still be close to the battery, with its explosive hydrogen.

Just because something tests ok with a multimeter doesn't always mean it will pass starting current. Have you ever successfully jumped a vehicle with the connectors?
 
Yeah the same Fiesta and my gfs car before. Neg battery lead vanishes underneath the car, only exposed bare metal is the starter motor and a bracket behind but connected to the starter.
 
bankz5152 said:
Yeah the same Fiesta and my gfs car before. Neg battery lead vanishes underneath the car, only exposed bare metal is the starter motor and a bracket behind but connected to the starter.
Click to expand...

OK so the connector must be working. Either of those should be ideal, like I said before, wiggle the clips about a bit, the clip teeth don't get much bite on steel.
 
Turboman said:
With a tractor, I usually attach the black lead to the bolt where the battery neg lead attaches to the chassis. Obviously not so good if the negative lead is very short, you will still be close to the battery, with its explosive hydrogen.

Just because something tests ok with a multimeter doesn't always mean it will pass starting current. Have you ever successfully jumped a vehicle with the connectors?
Click to expand...
You won't necessarily have the full start current going through the Anderson connectors. If you have both vehicles connected with jump leads with the good vehicle running then you are putting power back in to the dead battery. If you leave it in this condition for 5 minutes and then try a start the battery which has been charging will provide the bulk of the starter current as its internal resistance will be lower than the combination of the 'good' battery internal resistance and jump leads together. Admittedly it won't last very long as its only been charged for a few minutes but on a good starting vehicle that may be enough. On the other hand if you don't give the dead battery a chance to get a bit of charge in it then you will be trying to pull start current through the Andersons. However from memory the 175A Andersons can handle something like 300 A surge current, the 175A bit is actually their continuous rated current.
 
Kwakerman said:
You won't necessarily have the full start current going through the Anderson connectors. If you have both vehicles connected with jump leads with the good vehicle running then you are putting power back in to the dead battery. If you leave it in this condition for 5 minutes and then try a start the battery which has been charging will provide the bulk of the starter current as its internal resistance will be lower than the combination of the 'good' battery internal resistance and jump leads together. Admittedly it won't last very long as its only been charged for a few minutes but on a good starting vehicle that may be enough. On the other hand if you don't give the dead battery a chance to get a bit of charge in it then you will be trying to pull start current through the Andersons. However from memory the 175A Andersons can handle something like 300 A surge current, the 175A bit is actually their continuous rated current.
Click to expand...

That is what I do, hook em up and leave em for a few minutes to put a bit of charge into the battery on the tractor.:)
 
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