- Joined
- Jun 2, 2012
- Messages
- 25,363
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- 8,369
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- 113
- Location
- canada
- Vehicle Year
- 1994
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Transmission
- Manual
Electricity travels on the outside of a copper wire, which is why stranded wire can carry more amps than solid wire
Stranded wire just has more surface area, having several separate wires to carry the load
Romex is fine for 110v because the amps are low, 15 to 30amps
In 12volt systems the amps go up pretty high, i.e. the lower the voltage the higher the amps for the same watts
Starter motor needs 50-75amps at 12volts, which is why the bigger battery cables are so big, lol, and stranded, same as jumper cables use stranded wire
And negative battery cable has to carry the same amps or there is a bottle neck
If positive battery cable can pass 75amps but negative cable can only pass 40amps then 40amps will be the maximum amps that the "circuit" can flow
So both positive and negative must have good connections
Jumper cables are fine for this but are limited in the AMPs they can pass, they are made to do about 50amps max, to "help" another battery start an engine
They aren't made to be "battery cables", they are way too long for that
But your setup should have worked for cranking?
Romex for starter activation is fine that's less than 1 amp
So maybe the negative cable wasn't on clean metal for starter ground
Stranded wire just has more surface area, having several separate wires to carry the load
Romex is fine for 110v because the amps are low, 15 to 30amps
In 12volt systems the amps go up pretty high, i.e. the lower the voltage the higher the amps for the same watts
Starter motor needs 50-75amps at 12volts, which is why the bigger battery cables are so big, lol, and stranded, same as jumper cables use stranded wire
And negative battery cable has to carry the same amps or there is a bottle neck
If positive battery cable can pass 75amps but negative cable can only pass 40amps then 40amps will be the maximum amps that the "circuit" can flow
So both positive and negative must have good connections
Jumper cables are fine for this but are limited in the AMPs they can pass, they are made to do about 50amps max, to "help" another battery start an engine
They aren't made to be "battery cables", they are way too long for that
But your setup should have worked for cranking?
Romex for starter activation is fine that's less than 1 amp
So maybe the negative cable wasn't on clean metal for starter ground