GeneralTso

I've always tried to hook up my battery charger's positive lead to the battery and negative lead to a ground (to avoid situations like in the Ooops I fried my Porsche thread).

The problem in doing this with the 911 is that I'm having a hard time finding a good ground anywhere close to the battery. Any recommendations?

Thanks!

Jeff

rberry951

Hi Jeff,

From everything I've read so far on this, the best advice is to disconnect the battery from the car completely when charging. Or, disconnect the ground and connect the charger directly to the battery.

Regards,
Russell

GeneralTso

That sounds like a good idea if the car's going to sit for a while, but I was planning on keeping a Shumacher "Battery Companion" (1.5 AMP "smart" trickle charge) hooked up to keep the battery in top shape even if I'm not going to drive it for just a few days...

Is there much risk involved with just hooking + to + and - to - with a low amperage charger like that?

911pcars

You can connect the ground wire of the charger to the same place the battery ground cable connects to the chassis. It should even be safe connected directly onto the ground post/battery terminal. Perform the connections first before plugging the charger to AC.

Sherwood

1986951

Yep. I use a Battery Maintainer, with auto shut off at 13.4v, connected directly to the + and - leads for the battery terminals, on my '83 SC.

Just remember to hook up the Maintainer to the car first, and then plug into your AC outlet.

Never had an issue doing it this way...

Mike Murphy

Although I agree that it is best to charge the battery outside of the car, I see nothing terribly wrong with hooking up a good quality charger to the battery directly. The risk is in a sudden voltage spike (which can hurt the electronics) or a spark that can ignite fumes causing a fire. The other risk is warming the battery too much (from high amperage) to cause acid leaks or again, a fire.

But with a trickle charger, I don't think the risks are high with any of the above scenarios.

GeneralTso

Thanks for all the input!

On another battery-related note, I've always cracked a window in the garage when I've had the trickle charger going to avoid letting gases build up. This always kind of bugged me from a security standpoint since the windows are pretty much ground level...

Do you guys bother opening a window when the charger's going?

84_Carrera

Trickle Charger or pull the battery on a car like this, IMO. And nope, I don't specifically vent. But then, since I actually just PUT insulation in my garage, it is a little tighter than it was before now.