I have been studying up on this today. Numerous web sites say, you probably are OK with conventional car to car jumping, if:
1. Cut off the engine of the good vehicle.
2. Connect the hot cable to the hot post on dead battery. Then connect it to the hot post on good car.
3. Connect the negative cable to the good battery post.
4. Connect the negative cable to the engine area of the non functional car. Not to the negative terminal, but to a metal part that is not painted.
Then crank up the good car. Then, to really play it safe, run the car for five minutes. This should charge the dead battery. Disconnect and fire up the once-dead car.
I have been pretty much doing it this way as I have jumped post 2000 model cars on at least a dozen occasions and never caused any damage. I did not wait five minutes to charge the battery, I just cranked up the good car and started the kaput car right up. Also I have not connected to a non painted metal part, I connect right to the negative post of the dead battery.
Maybe I have been lucky.
As I said above, once I began reading this thread this morning, I bought a charger from Amazon for 98 bucks.
I am still a Boy Scout at heart. Be Prepared.
