handcannon
Well-Known Member
Just thought I would post up some pics of my battery cables. This is so those without much, or any, experience with hard starting or slow cranking can see and understand when someone reccommends that they carefully check their battery cables.
Pic # 1 Shows what the battery end of the battery to starter cable looked like. It didn't look too bad. Sometime in the past somebody had twisted the cable and I was concerned about what the cable looked like under the insulation. There was only a slight indication of swelling from corrosion buildup.
Pics # 2 & 3 This shows what I found when I started trimming the insulation off. There was far more corrosion than I anticipated. In pic 2 the white chunks setting on the battery above the "S" are just a small portion of the corrosion I found. Pic 3 shows how far the corrosion had travelled under the insulation.
Pic # 4 Shows the battery end of the two negative cables. I cut off the insulation on one of the crimped ends. It looked like it probably did when it was new.
View attachment 22558View attachment 22559View attachment 22560View attachment 22561
I had recently replaced the batteries and the guy installing them had checked the alt and said it was putting out enough. However I was continuing to have occasional slow cranking problems. The starter would not crank the motor fast enough for a few times and then suddenly crank over good for a while.
I had an almost new gear reduction starter on another motor so I decided to swap them to take the old starter (maybe the origional at 230k miles) out of the equation. I also decided to start replacing the cables by replacing the starter to battery cable first since I had everything apart in that area already.
I wanted heavier cables than stock. Because I had not planned on doing this right away I didn't have anything pre-purchased. Consequently I was stuck with wire that I origionally didn't want, welding cable. Welding cable is great stuff for flexibility because of the multi-strands of very fine wire. I'm just not sure how long it will hold up to the oily environment under the hood, but I was stuck. I needed to get my pickup running again.
I used 2/0 for the starter to battery cable. Pure beefy stuff at 5/8ths" diameter on the outside of the insulation. I used #2 AWG welding cable for both ground cables. I still need to replace the hot lead between the two batteries. I don't think I've ever heard this thing crank so fast since I've had it.
I still want to take the starter solinoid apart to see what the contacts look like. I'm suspicioning the contacts will be burnt as that would go along with the intermittent slow cranking. If anybody is interested I can post pics of what I find.
Don
Pic # 1 Shows what the battery end of the battery to starter cable looked like. It didn't look too bad. Sometime in the past somebody had twisted the cable and I was concerned about what the cable looked like under the insulation. There was only a slight indication of swelling from corrosion buildup.
Pics # 2 & 3 This shows what I found when I started trimming the insulation off. There was far more corrosion than I anticipated. In pic 2 the white chunks setting on the battery above the "S" are just a small portion of the corrosion I found. Pic 3 shows how far the corrosion had travelled under the insulation.
Pic # 4 Shows the battery end of the two negative cables. I cut off the insulation on one of the crimped ends. It looked like it probably did when it was new.
View attachment 22558View attachment 22559View attachment 22560View attachment 22561
I had recently replaced the batteries and the guy installing them had checked the alt and said it was putting out enough. However I was continuing to have occasional slow cranking problems. The starter would not crank the motor fast enough for a few times and then suddenly crank over good for a while.
I had an almost new gear reduction starter on another motor so I decided to swap them to take the old starter (maybe the origional at 230k miles) out of the equation. I also decided to start replacing the cables by replacing the starter to battery cable first since I had everything apart in that area already.
I wanted heavier cables than stock. Because I had not planned on doing this right away I didn't have anything pre-purchased. Consequently I was stuck with wire that I origionally didn't want, welding cable. Welding cable is great stuff for flexibility because of the multi-strands of very fine wire. I'm just not sure how long it will hold up to the oily environment under the hood, but I was stuck. I needed to get my pickup running again.
I used 2/0 for the starter to battery cable. Pure beefy stuff at 5/8ths" diameter on the outside of the insulation. I used #2 AWG welding cable for both ground cables. I still need to replace the hot lead between the two batteries. I don't think I've ever heard this thing crank so fast since I've had it.
I still want to take the starter solinoid apart to see what the contacts look like. I'm suspicioning the contacts will be burnt as that would go along with the intermittent slow cranking. If anybody is interested I can post pics of what I find.
Don
