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Wires and My Battery

So you're all hearing from an amateur right now. I'm going to ask some stupid questions.

But I had some great help from this discussion group a few months ago, and I occasionally check and just read the advice for other people's Jeep problems, and I enjoy what I learn. I have an old Jeep ('97) and I've never been taught about cars, but as my Jeep starts to have problems, I'm really trying to learn about my car instead of just taking it to a mechanic.

So here's the latest issue.

I live across the street from the projects. In Chicago. (It's a bizarre gentrification situation). And my battery was stolen. (As a side question, if anyone knows of a good way to lock the hood with a bike lock or padlock or something, I'd love to hear about it.) So I replaced it, but now I'm having some starter issues. I can jiggle the positive wire and get it to start, but I'd like to learn how to clean all my connections and make sure everything's connected properly by myself. The best way to learn is by doing, right?

So, I think I should replace my ground wire. At the auto parts shop, I bought a new ground wire. Is the ground the only function of the wires that come from the negative terminal? (Stupid question #1) If not, what else will I be looking at replacing?

In addition to that, I'm worried about the connection between by positive wire and the starter (or starter relay). I know my positive battery terminal connections are dodgy, because they were cut by the thieves and I had to strip them and clamp them into a makeshift terminal. So I'm planning on clearing that up. But I also want to make sure my connections to the starter and the solenoid are clean and tight. Can anyone tell me where that connection is? A picture would be amazing, But if someone can just tell me what I'm looking for, I can at least look at it and see if it's something I can fix.

I'd love some general direction regarding what to use to clean connections and make sure they're good. And if it sounds from my unsophisticated description of these things like I probably shouldn't be trying to do this myself, I would appreciate brutal honesty in that regard.

I realize that any response to this post will be like teaching kindergarten, and I'm very appreciative of it, even though I can't reciprocate by giving advice of my own in this group.

Having read these posts, it seems that the consensus with my type of electrical problems is that clean and tight connections are the first thing to look at (rather than replacing parts like the starter), so I really want to try to do that on my own. If that doesn't work, I'll probably take it to my mechanic.

Thank you. Viva google.

-- Egan

Reply to
EganReich
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Hey Egan. The first thing I would tell a rookie is when you do anything with your battery, negative first off, last on. That will help to prevent any accidental short by touching something with your wrench.

The same goes when you work on anything electrical, disconnect the ground from your battery.

Sometimes it's hard to tell if a cable is corroded, because the outer appearance may look good, but the corrosion will be inside under the insulation or under the cable end. Baking soda and water works good to clean the cable ends (I always used an old toothbrush), but if you have some old, hot, stale coffee around, dip the cable end in the coffee and swish around for a few seconds. It will clean it right up.

To prevent corrosion, after you hook up the terminals, coat them down with a little axle grease. Corrosion occurs when 2 metals touch (oxidation), if air (oxygen) can't get to the metal, it can't oxidize.

As far as the parts, any good parts store will be able to tell you exactly what you need and should be able to show you a diagram.

Good luck! Darrell

Reply to
d

The only stupid question is the one not asked.

Cabrini Green? I drove past those once, didn't know I went past them till someone pointed them out to me.

Bolt cutters will remove most of those. You might look for a keyed hood pins these.

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Or
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is what I used on my old chevy truck. It just sits next to the hoodlatch and also disables the ignition.

Basically it's using a wire brush and scrubbing off any rust or corrosion.

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by an application of no-ox (dilectric grease) like that usedfor spark plug boots. The local auto parts store will have this.There are also some felt donuts you can put on the battery posts toreduce corrosion there. As for tools, the auto parts store (autozoneor pepboys) will have a whole selection.

Yep.. usually battery to frame with a few other connections depending on model.

When you start cleaning connections it is important that you remove the battery ground. Especially when working around the starter and solinoid as it is easy to short out a connection if the wrench hits the engine or frame.

Reply to
DougW

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