Might sound like a silly question but if you hooked up positive to positive using the negative cable and negative to ground using the positive cable, would this be any different? besides the fact that you might get confused ofc
if you hooked up positive to positive using the negative cable and negative to ground using the positive cable, would this be any different?
No.
They're both just copper cables. Electricity doesn't care. The colors are there to prevent human error.
I don't think so, they're just cables. The positives and negatives are there to keep the cables from touching the wrong terminals and potentially frying the two cars.
The positive and negative terminals on the battery are slightly different sizes, so depending on how much leeway the cable connectors have there might be an issue. Other than that as long as the polarity is correct there's no problem. (My 1967 Rambler has a black positive cable and red negative cable and there are no problems. It was that way when I bought it from the previous owner.)
Oops, I see the topic is jumper cables, not battery cables in the car! Sorry about that!
It's interesting that the polarities have switched. Now, it's red for the positive cable, and negative for the black.
I'm sure it came from the factory with red for positive and black for negative and as cables were replaced the wrong colors were used. I always go by the polarity indicated on the battery.
Yeah, my father-in-law has old jumper cables that don't have any indicators at all anymore, so I'm always extremely cautious. I always look on the battery as well before I hook them up.
These days I use a jumper pack instead of cables. It's more convenient and has polarity protection so even if hooked up wrong accidentally it won't hurt anything.
My father-in-law is of the type, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", lol.