Battery Charging Question

[cjmani]

Hello Primers, I 've read a lot of threads about keeping our NSX batteries charged up and have purchased a Battery Tender Plus for that purpose. But none seem to address hooking the thing up to the battery directly in the car.

The instructions go into a lot of detail about how to connect up the charger. Since the battery will remain hooked up in the car the instructions say to run the negative cable to the engine block or a substantial chassis support and the positive alligator to the pos term on the battery.

My question is this: Is it ok to just hook up the alligator grips onto the battery directly neg to neg and pos to pos, or does that somehow ruin the charger, battery, electronics or all the above?

thanks for any guidance on this and sorry for the somewhat newbie question....

Chris

 

[wahoo5]

My Battery CHarger Plus is connected in the engine compartment. The positive clamp goes to the positive terminal in the fuse compartment on the driver's side and the negative terminal goes to the lug with the big minus sign stamped into it about a foot away from the fuse compartment. I run the cord down through the bottom of the engine compartment so I can keep the engine cover closed.

 

[SFNSXguy]

I find it easier to connect to the "jump start" lug in the engine compartment -- then you don't have to remove the spare tire.
Others like to permanently install the charger in the front bay with connection to the battery -- then there's just a power cable that will come out to plug into AC.
Your mileage may vary.

 

[Briank]

The reason the instructions have you connect to the positive first and then the negative to a connection away from the battery is so you don't create a spark near the battery. Under certain conditions battries emit Hydrogen gas which a spark can explode.

 

[cjmani]

Thanks for the replies.....I tried to find the neg terminal in the engine bay area, but since I've had a CTSC installed that part may have been replaced or covered up... I couldn't find it.

Is there an alternative spot in the engine area?

 

[SFNSXguy]

The neg (-) terminal is any big hunk of metal that goes to ground. The pos (+) terminal is under the fuse box cover and has a plastic shield that flips up.

 

[TyraNSX]

If you do a search there is a thread with a pic showing ring terminal pigtail connected to the fuse box on the RF strut tower. Connect the positive to the bus bar running down the middle. Connnect negative to boss that holds fuse panel to car. To hook up, open front hood, slide long wire from Battery Tender under car, grab wire with flexible claw grabbers, connect to pigtail. Close hood. If you do it right the fuse box lid pops right back on and you would never notice the pigtail. If you want to I can take pics of mine.