S has been stood for 6 weeks in the garage and the battery has run flat. I have a charger that i can use. I just wanted to check if you have to disconnect the live or earth lead from the battery before i start to charge it,or do i just clip the crocodile clips onto the terminals in situ and plug the charger to the mains?

Many thanks,

Paul.

 

anybody around?

 

Personally, I'd just jump start it and go out for a blast.

 

If it's one of those new fangled conditioners / trickle charges then no. But if it's a good old fashioned powerful charger, you should really remove the battery from the car to charge it.

 

Your battery may have oxidised during the time spent layed up. In the future (yeah, I know) you may want to connect the car to a trickle charger so it stays ok. For now, you can try giving it a jump and letting the car run for at least 15 minutes (depending on how flat it is) but it would be better for an hour.

If you are going to charg up the battery before this, you should read the directions with the specific charger you will be using, as they do differ. But in general I would disconnect the positive side of the battery in order to avoid any unintended spikes going through your system and potrentially causing damage. You would probably be allright not dicsonnecting anything, but as they say and ounce of preventiom is worth a pound of cure.

Hope this helps.

 

Thankyou for your replies. Its not an old fashioned one,its pretty new. I have connected it up in situ and the battery charging light is on and its not caught fire yet. I'll leave it to charge overnight.