"proper" use of jumper cables

[tw]

Originally Posted by KatPhys1

I've only heard that one needs to hook up the red cable to positive and the the black cable to negative. But if they're just cables, why couldn't you hook up the black cable to positive and the red cable to negative?

I learned about cars due to attitudes by so many others. Some cars (with cables replaced) even had black to the positive terminal and red to negative. If you matched jump cable colors to battery cable colors, the results were destructive.

Yes, match colors. And then like anyone must do, have some other method to confirm your assumptions. So include following that battery cable to what it connects to. Find the + and - markings on the battery. Use a meter. But you must always have some separate confirming method even when only jumper starting a car. Nothing new. It goes right back to lessons learned by doing things and constantly asking why. An educated human never does something catastrophically dangerous without some separate confirmation.

It's also called a parking brake. Same concept.