Batteries

[James N Gagliardi <jg6r+@andrew.cmu.edu>]

   I discovered something very interesting yesterday as I jumpstarted my
   sister's 82 Jetta with my 86GLI...  the $35 Energizer battery I got
   for her at Costco (warehouse club) is EXACTLY THE SAME as the Sears
   DieHard (might be international) that I paid $85 for a few months
   ago.  Except for the stickers   that say 'Sears' and 'Energizer' of
   course.  Shop and learn....

This is all well and good, but if you had to jump start her car, I would
want either battery.  
I drive an 81 5000 diesel which always starts.  One exception, when I
was home in Vermont for Christmas, it didn't start one day when it was
-15f.  , but I attribute that to the fact that I still had 15w40 oil in
the car.(I base this on the fact that it took almost two minutes to pour
one quart of oil into my car at the same temperature).  So I went to the
local autoparts store, bought a magnetic block heater and it started
about an hour later.  There's no replacement for a big battery.  The
advertised CCA's at various temperatures, plate size and spread etc.
don't seem to make that much difference.  However there seems to be a
direct corollation between weight and output.  I have (and need) enough
power to turn my car over for several minutes.  I am always amazed at
how many cars that I see being jumpstarted on days that I am driving my
diesel.  On a Diesel 5000 the battery is located underneath the
airfilter(front right of car), so the wires to the starter are very
short and very thick.  I replaced the chassis ground with a large
diameter cable running straight to the block.  Many people don't realize
the importance of good connections.  The resistance of a wire is related
to its length over the radius squared.  I don't think my car would even
turn over with one of those under the seat battery set ups.  When it's
cold you need every amp that you can get.