Battery died in Volvo 240
Don't have jumper cables or a jump pack at my disposal and will have to wait a long while for someone to come help
If I disabled certain fuses - for the clock, radio, power windows, for example - would that redirect more power towards getting the car to start up without needing a jump ?
Has anyone ever tried this with a successful result ?

 

No that would not divert enough power. The issue is the matter of volts vs amps. even if the clock say, used 5 volts, its only using .0001 amps out of you 700+ available.

Sorry to say, but sounds like you need to play the waiting game

 

Thanks for your reply.

Is it true a charge pack left on the car for several hours or overnight will be better ( easier on the car, specifically the alternator ) for recharge of the battery than driving it around or idling it for 30 minutes or so ? And also the only way to bring the battery back up to being 100% fully recharged again ?

 

the best thing you can do is to hook up a battery charger overnight, at a 6-10 amp setting. this would, of course, require an extension cord to reach the car (or bring the battery to the charger).

I don't have much faith in those little jump start batteries, they are like 1/10th the capacity of your car battery.

 

I may be second guessing here but it sounds like you may have a bad battery. Take it and get it load tested . If it needs a charge then put it on a charger. It should read 12.6 volts just sitting in the car with nothing running.

 

The alternator is built to charge your battery and run your car while its driving

That being said, yeah it'll be easier on the car to have something else charge the battery, but it’s completely unnecessary. The issue is that batteries only last 5 or so years, the alternator can last up to 300 thousand plus miles in some cases.

basically, if the car dies while driving, bad alternator is suspect
car won’t start in the morning or after being parked, bad battery and or alternator

Either way, get them both tested

*FYI: the battery needs some amount of charge in it to be tested

 

a cars alternator will attempt to dump like 100 amps into a deeply discharged battery to charge it as fast as possible. this is not that great for the battery, charging it with a external smart charger at 10 or so amps will give the battery longer life.