i do some of my own electrical wiring, so i have a non-contact ac voltage detector. the non-contact ac voltage detector worked GREAT. started beeping on the live wire. electrical power. positive. and nothing on the other wire. negative. i also put some red paint on the positive wire and wrapped some electrical tape on the re-attached clips. non-contact ac voltage tester? $10-$15 at hardware store. if you have two prongs on your clip. the bigger ones are to hold the wire with cover. the smaller prongs are to hold the wire without the cover.
That's good news and it makes sense. The non-contact tester is looking for an AC signal. Your charger is probably a half-wave rectifier so there is a 120hz signal on the positive DC connection and triggers the non-contact probe.
Generally the charger leads are done from "lamp cord", and one wire will have striations, or 'ribs' molded onto it while the other side is smooth. In AC work the ribbed side is the neutral and in DC work that's the negative. Always test or check in case someone got it backwards.
My charger currently has very thin gauge wire going to the clips. I need to reattach the clips, but I’d like to thicker (lamp) and longer wire. Will I be adding resistance if I use longer/thicker wire?
@@boomcrash Lamp cord is usually 18ga or 16ga; that maxxes out to 13A and 16A respectively over something like a 12ft/4m run. Best to stay a bit below the max as in the bending during use over years a few small strands might break but probably not really an issue.
Mine has a red stripe on the positive lead of the charger. Without a volt meter, I don't know of an easy and foolproof way of figuring out which lead is positive. The box of the charger might be connected to the negative, so which ever lead sparks when you scrape it against the case of the charger is probably positive.
Put a piece of tape around the positive wire before removing the clamps. If you don't have any marks to go from, you'll need a volt meter to determine the correct polarity.
@@eformance is there anyway you can do a demo video on this? Both of mine came off at the same time like a lot of people's have I'm sure. I would greatly appreciate it.
Put voltmeter on volts dc. Turn on charger. Touch your leads to charging wires. If it shows positive numbers your correct. If you flip your leads around it then should show a negative sign in front of numbers. Which would indicate your reversed. So you want the numbers positive above zero.
If you replace them one at a time, you don't have to keep track of which one is positive. The clips are made from 2 identical stampings, you are just moving the wire from one side to the other, to get a second life out of them.
EFormance Engineering both of mine are off. The other guy was asking white line positive solid black line negative or vice versa. We’re not all engineers I wish we were. Have a good one
Elizabeth fields You’ve just got to plug it in and which ever wire sparks brushing it across the terminal is the best way to go.Mine was all backwards. And one other thing. The negative clamp was made of a different type of metal. The positive clamp was more of a gold tone metal. The other a dull gray it was starting to eat away at the door gray metal because I was using it as the positive . The wires are confusing. All kinds of markings and to tell you the truth if I did not look at RUclips for this particular project I would’ve been better off. Too much miss information. Not to get off topic but” dielectric grease”.... I bought a tube of it and wanted to make positively sure I used it correctly because I’ve never used any.. Every time you buy batteries or spark plugs they always try to sell you the little packet for a dollar or two at the register. I bought a big old tube of it, the directions were confusing so I figured I...RUclips!!! Nope. 75% of the people I saw using it online or doing it wrong. Something as simple as that. It restricts the flow of electricity. The way some people were using it so liberally, a big dollop over the end of each spark plug boot. If it did much of anything the car would’ve never even started after they did that.. misinformation big-time.. The one guy with the big dollops had been taught that way by his uncle Gary or whatever the hell his name was. One fellow was a sales person for all types of automotive grease and creams and small tubes of stuff. He had a white lab coat on and seemed all official and all. I guarantee you he had never worked on a car before ever. Never changed a flat.! Sorry for the rant I’m just telling you. RUclips and Google can surely steer you wrong. Back to the charger. Look up your exact model and look up the owners manual or do the spark thing. I was looking up stuff for my car online for days and found more information in 10 minutes in my owners manual. Correct information.I wish I could be more help
Elizabeth fields but when you get it figured out make sure everything is clean and go ahead and straighten everything out. I’ll put some shrink tubing around mine just to make sure. I could hang from a tree with it it’s so strong now.
@@eformance i grabbed my charger and headed out the door. both clips caught on something and both came off. i was in a hurry, so there was a big tug. whatever genius at the manufacturer put two exact cables on there. no red marking. no white marking. both cables look exactly alike. GREAT ! ! they must have saved a ton or money by doing that. the next charger i get i will mark positive red, but that doesn't do me any good right now.
@@captainblood1234 I made another video on how to determine the polarity using salt water. If you have a volt meter it's even easier. The easiest is probably "which one sparks when you touch it to the metal case". If you find a screw or something on the metal case, the sparky one is positive.
I was hoping it would be as easy to fix as a normal wire!! Glad I paid attention to things my daddy worked on when I was a kid!! Thank you!!
Thanks, glad it helped!
worked perfectly for me. The key was the punch, I would not have thought of that one. Thanks.
Excellent, thanks!
i do some of my own electrical wiring, so i have a non-contact ac voltage detector. the non-contact ac voltage detector worked GREAT. started beeping on the live wire. electrical power. positive. and nothing on the other wire. negative.
i also put some red paint on the positive wire and wrapped some electrical tape on the re-attached clips. non-contact ac voltage tester? $10-$15 at hardware store.
if you have two prongs on your clip. the bigger ones are to hold the wire with cover. the smaller prongs are to hold the wire without the cover.
That's good news and it makes sense. The non-contact tester is looking for an AC signal. Your charger is probably a half-wave rectifier so there is a 120hz signal on the positive DC connection and triggers the non-contact probe.
Forgot to slide the sleeve over the wire. Now it’s gonna spark.
Generally the charger leads are done from "lamp cord", and one wire will have striations, or 'ribs' molded onto it while the other side is smooth. In AC work the ribbed side is the neutral and in DC work that's the negative. Always test or check in case someone got it backwards.
My charger currently has very thin gauge wire going to the clips. I need to reattach the clips, but I’d like to thicker (lamp) and longer wire. Will I be adding resistance if I use longer/thicker wire?
@@boomcrash Lamp cord is usually 18ga or 16ga; that maxxes out to 13A and 16A respectively over something like a 12ft/4m run. Best to stay a bit below the max as in the bending during use over years a few small strands might break but probably not really an issue.
Good point, I also did an electrolysis video on how to determine polarity from the bubbles!
Does it matter which wire you put in the positive or negative?
Do one clip at a time, then you can't get them mixed up. It does matter which is positive and negative.
What side is red and black money came off ! There's letters and numbers on one side the cord and not the other so red is on what side and black?
Mine has a red stripe on the positive lead of the charger. Without a volt meter, I don't know of an easy and foolproof way of figuring out which lead is positive. The box of the charger might be connected to the negative, so which ever lead sparks when you scrape it against the case of the charger is probably positive.
What if you take off both at the same time. How do you know which one is the positive or red clamp.
Put a piece of tape around the positive wire before removing the clamps. If you don't have any marks to go from, you'll need a volt meter to determine the correct polarity.
@@eformance is there anyway you can do a demo video on this? Both of mine came off at the same time like a lot of people's have I'm sure. I would greatly appreciate it.
this happened to me. Here is a helpful link. www.wikihow.com/Test-a-Battery-Charger
@@blakesmith141 Thanks for the video suggestion, I'll look at doing a video about determining the polarity when the clips fall off.
Put voltmeter on volts dc. Turn on charger. Touch your leads to charging wires. If it shows positive numbers your correct. If you flip your leads around it then should show a negative sign in front of numbers. Which would indicate your reversed. So you want the numbers positive above zero.
which side is positive
If you replace them one at a time, you don't have to keep track of which one is positive. The clips are made from 2 identical stampings, you are just moving the wire from one side to the other, to get a second life out of them.
EFormance Engineering both of mine are off. The other guy was asking white line positive solid black line negative or vice versa. We’re not all engineers I wish we were. Have a good one
@@wbwills2 so which is it..
Elizabeth fields You’ve just got to plug it in and which ever wire sparks brushing it across the terminal is the best way to go.Mine was all backwards. And one other thing. The negative clamp was made of a different type of metal. The positive clamp was more of a gold tone metal. The other a dull gray it was starting to eat away at the door gray metal because I was using it as the positive . The wires are confusing. All kinds of markings and to tell you the truth if I did not look at RUclips for this particular project I would’ve been better off. Too much miss information. Not to get off topic but” dielectric grease”.... I bought a tube of it and wanted to make positively sure I used it correctly because I’ve never used any.. Every time you buy batteries or spark plugs they always try to sell you the little packet for a dollar or two at the register. I bought a big old tube of it, the directions were confusing so I figured I...RUclips!!! Nope. 75% of the people I saw using it online or doing it wrong. Something as simple as that. It restricts the flow of electricity. The way some people were using it so liberally, a big dollop over the end of each spark plug boot. If it did much of anything the car would’ve never even started after they did that.. misinformation big-time.. The one guy with the big dollops had been taught that way by his uncle Gary or whatever the hell his name was. One fellow was a sales person for all types of automotive grease and creams and small tubes of stuff. He had a white lab coat on and seemed all official and all. I guarantee you he had never worked on a car before ever. Never changed a flat.! Sorry for the rant I’m just telling you. RUclips and Google can surely steer you wrong. Back to the charger. Look up your exact model and look up the owners manual or do the spark thing. I was looking up stuff for my car online for days and found more information in 10 minutes in my owners manual. Correct information.I wish I could be more help
Elizabeth fields but when you get it figured out make sure everything is clean and go ahead and straighten everything out. I’ll put some shrink tubing around mine just to make sure. I could hang from a tree with it it’s so strong now.
What to do if unknown witch pos. And witch is neg.
The one that sparks against the case of the battery charger is the positive. That's the quick and dirty way of figuring it out.
@@eformance no spark with either cable
@@captainblood1234 Is this a newfangled smart charger, or older style that has some heft? Do they spark when you touch them together?
Thanks I hope this works
Poor video it's not telling you which is whst
If you flip around one clip at a time, you won't get them mixed up.
@@eformance i grabbed my charger and headed out the door. both clips caught on something and both came off. i was in a hurry, so there was a big tug. whatever genius at the manufacturer put two exact cables on there. no red marking. no white marking. both cables look exactly alike. GREAT ! ! they must have saved a ton or money by doing that. the next charger i get i will mark positive red, but that doesn't do me any good right now.
@@captainblood1234 I made another video on how to determine the polarity using salt water. If you have a volt meter it's even easier. The easiest is probably "which one sparks when you touch it to the metal case". If you find a screw or something on the metal case, the sparky one is positive.