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Dying on the road

My Suburban has been dying on the road - - just plain cutting out - dead as a door nail - no electrical power.

I can rotate the battery cables on the battery terminal and then it gets power back to the vehicle and it'll start and run. Sometimes it'll run for weeks before it cuts out again - sometimes it'll cut out in a few minutes.

The contacts appear clean - but to me the problem lies somewhere in that connection.

Am I missing something else that's not so obvious to me as the cause?

Any suggestions on improving the contacts? It's a brand new (

Reply to
cadfactor
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Hi!

Dunno if it will solve your problem, but if it is the terminals, this might shed some light on it...

Take the rubber boot off the terminal as best you can. If the vehicle is old you might find one big collection of corrosion and maybe even a bad connection.

I took the ones "apart" on my '84, cleaned them up, coated them with anti-oxidation grease and it made one heck of a difference starting on cold days and such. I also made sure the little "disc" inside the terminal boot was tight against the side terminal post on the battery.

William The Guesser

Reply to
William R. Walsh

I'm with William.............check all grounds as well, especially battery-to-block and the main body ground.

Doc

Reply to
"Doc"

I have had the same problem on a 97 Suburban. The +ve terminal is reluctant to tighten down and stay tight. The truck still has the original copper ended cables with the lead disc between them. I think the best thing to do is to replace the cables with the lead type ends. The one to the fuse box is easy but the cable that runs to the starterlooks a pain. It also needs to be protected from the heat of the exhaust using metallic tape. Does anyone know the length this cable needs to be - I think it will have to be in the region of 55 to 60 inches.

Reply to
Doug Abbott

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