Do-it-yourself: How to jump-start a car battery

It has probably happened to you before. You go to turn your ignition, and nothing happens. Maybe you hear a few clicks. All you need to get your car back on the road is a good set of jumper cables.
Park the functioning car so that the vehicles face each other. For automatic transmission cars, put the vehicle in park; for a manual transmission, set the vehicle to neutral. Open the hood to both cars, and locate the batteries and battery terminals. Usually, the two terminals on each battery will be covered in red or black, with a + or – sign on top. Look at the batteries and make sure that you can identify which is positive, and which is negative. Attach the red, positive clamp to the positive (+) battery terminal of the dead battery. Attach the red, positive cable clamp on the other side of the jumper cables to the functioning vehicle’s positive (+) battery terminal
Connect the black, negative cable clamp to the working battery’s negative (-) battery terminal. Start the working vehicle and then try starting the dead car. Once the dead car is running, you may disconnect the jumper cables, starting with the black, negative cable clamps. Do not let the clamps touch each other while any part of the cables is still attached to a car. Take a short drive when your dead battery is back to life. This will allow the battery to build up a charge. It’s that simple.