PowerMaster Starters: Worth It?

[n8in8or]

Not only is the contact area to the cable from the battery smaller then top post: the internal battery construction has side post connections that are weaker than the top post. At least in dual post batteries anyway. I have had many batteries test perfect on the top post but fail on the GM side posts. The side post connections can corrode or burn up in the battery.

@n8in8or if you read info from any of the battery companies on combo (top & side) they will tell you to use the top post for the higher amperage pulls whenever possible.

If a specific car/truck mfr chooses to make a top post connector that is really cheap, they will have problems form it down the road like Toyotas did in early 80’s. Outside the use of a cheap connector, ever hear of anyone having to modify a top post connector to keep from coming loose or stop from arcing out?

Every car club of sorts out there for designed sidepost has a “battery cable mod” to deal with the problems they all have. Many involve having to add support to the cable to relieve the stress on the tiny bolt.

To be fair, many people have decades of trouble free use. But we had our share of issue in the fleet with them in gmt400s. We got to the point that we made a deal with the dealership, when we would buy trucks, they would deliver them to our shop or we picked them up and took to our shop. All the batteries went back to the dealership. We dropped in optimas and chopped the cable end off. We had a solder filled connector to add a top post cable we would buy and fit to length for both batteries. Did a few other things to before going into service like repalcing dexcrap coolant with green and replacing the quick connect heater hose fittings (that rot away and hard to change later) with a barb fitting.

What I do now is just wait till the first sidepost battery dies, then replace with a top post one. I am still having amazing results with optimas, but I use yellow not red.

Good to know. Thanks for the info guys! When I get back to making my underside battery box I’ll be sure to have room for top post batteries.