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Battery issues

New to the group, but have been lurking and enjoying the numerous issues that have been dealt with. I picked up a '97 2dr Tahoe a while back for a song and have been spending the last few months taking care of neglected maintenance issues,as well as making my own modifications. I'm working on the electrical problems and have run into something I'm not sure how to handle. I'd just replaced the positive battery cable and began to focus on the positive relay cable that comes off the side terminal and runs across the fan shroud and into the fuse relay box. The joker that had the truck before me attempted to crimp a 12-16 awg terminal ring onto what must be a

6-8 gauge wire at the battery post end. This seems to be at least one source of much of my electrical frustrations. None of the parts stores locally carry this relay cable or the correct sized terminal rings to make a proper connection (NAPA tech even told me he had tried securing these from GM for quite some time to no avail). Are there any sources from where I could order the replacement, and could I, in the meantime, run your typical size 4 awg positive cable in its stead? What concerns are there in doing this? Where could I ground the cable? Appreciate anything you can offer me.
Reply to
Matt
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any electrical supply house that suppies electricians will have a tern=minal of that size

or a welding supplies place

you may need to take the cable entirely off and crimp it in a vise, to get a good crimp; then heat it and flow solder into the joint, followed by a couple layers of shrink-tubing to get a weather-tight joint

Reply to
Gary Glaenzer

This cable is a ~$55 dealer item, I have looked myself. There was some past discussion on the failure of the lead spacer of the double lug on the battery post. It would cause a bad connection and pose a 'Load dumping' situation on the alternator. Since the GM alternator uses Avalanche diodes, it usually fails. Find out more here >>

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As Gary pointed out, you can crimp or solder flow a lug to the cable you mentioned. and connect it to the battery. If you replace the cable, replace it with the same size conductor.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

Wasn't there some problem with the bolt on the battery terminal being too long and breaking the connection loose internal to the battery? I seem to remember reading on here about that. Also if you do solder the connector, be carefull , I soldered the battery connection on our Plemon and the connector itsself started to melt, I believe they are made of lead which is partly what solder it made of, guess I got it a bit too hot.

Reply to
Eugene Nine

Reply to
Joe Poitras

Done! Got it all hooked up with the proper connections. Found a terminal that would work with the application at the local electrical supply and took it from there. Thanks for the info.

- Gary sorry for that direct email, hit the wrong reply button.

Reply to
Matt

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