2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Crowded Battery Terminals !!!!!

[DieselMinded]

HElp me clean this mess up



I know some body makes a special battery terminal with connecton points for after market upgrades.



what worries me is how hard would it be to replace the main power lines to the motor or where ever... or do you just cut the factory battery termenal off and use the main power wires to connect to the new and improved SUPER BATTERY TERMINAL.



Any One did this yet???



Details... . Details



Thanks

DM



PS::: the gray gunk is anti corrode

 

[Thomas]

This works for me.

 

[CMorrow]

Found a 4 terminal adapter with safety cover that goes right on your battery post or battery terminal. Theres a pos and neg adapter. Got mine at a boating supply store. It use's plug in spade terminals for each of the 4 hookups. If you have more than 4 wires to run than you can even doubleup and put 2 adapters per post.

A other alternative is to use a bus bar setup and run a 4 or 6 gauge wire to power this and then hook all your accessories to this. You can get these thru car audio sources. http://www.crutchfield.com/S-tPUZyUHuFeg/cgi-bin/ProdGroup.asp?g=715&avf=Y

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-tPUZyU...3&id=morephotos&pi=3&i=211BTN1&display=XL#Tab

This is a little on the highend, but you get the idea. You'll always have plenty of power and you can hook up a car amplifer off this and have plenty of power for all your accesories.

 

[ProMac1K]

Thomas, could you tell me the gauge or big end size of the spade lugs that you installed on your positive terminal?



I'm in the same situation Mr. Embrey. My driver side postive terminal literally has a bridge or a gap between the lug where the bolt goes through and the cable end of the terminal. Don't know how it happened, just broke one day while tightening. Wasn't strong enough. So basically the terminal is just hand snug on the post. Last Saturday I had a problem with the starting system, key to starting system resulted in a situation that acted like a dead battery or an open somewhere. I managed to put the jumper cables on just right that the truck started, but then after I drove away acted like it was charging more than it used to. Got the truck home, then the truck wouldn't start. Got up next morning and the truck wouldn't start. Rapped on the terminals a bit with a hammer, truck fired right up. There was a little dried acid corrosion falling from underneath the terminals, but I think the bad positive terminal was the culprit. Truck has been fine since that morning. So Saturday night I went and got a set of EverStart Marine Battery terminals from Walmart and a set of connector lugs for the driver side connections. On this marine-style terminal, there is a threaded stud sticking out of the top of the terminal. The lugs are then put around this stud, and then fastened down with a nut, or the supplied wing nut. I'm anxious to get these terminals installed. I had to go to the parts store to get a bigger connector lug, 1/2" ID, for the big postive cable, and I think I can use one of the two from Walmart to combine the two smaller leads off the old terminal, then use the remaining connector lug in the two-lug set from Walmart for the negative terminal on the driver side. Then it should be the same principle as the picture that Thomas posted, but instead the lugs are fastened on top of the terminal instead of on the side with a bolt through the terminal.

 

[Thomas]

Thomas, could you tell me the gauge or big end size of the spade lugs that you installed on your positive terminal?...

The parts came from Wrangler NW Power Products. Page 34 of their catalog shows the ring terminals (lugs) that fit the OEM 2/0 cables and the 5/16 inch bolts of the military terminals (pp 21-22 of the catalog).



My setup pretty much eliminates problems associated with connecting/disconnecting cables - multiple times - at the battery posts.

... PS::: the gray gunk is anti corrode

The Optima batteries pretty much eliminate corrosion.

 

[Hummin Cummins]

I used the buss bar for mine. Mounted on the drivers side fenderwell right by the battery works great.

 

[cap-n-cray]

Waytek Inc. has a lot of neat stuff. Sometimes they will send you a free sample too. :-laf



Waytek Click Products and do a search on part number 37058.



Cary

 

[ProMac1K]

Thomas, thanks for giving me the specs. I think I found a post of yours while searching last weekend. I had a few other pics of your setup, now I have one more.



Trever

 

[Thomas]

I purchased two positive terminal and two negative terminal military lugs from Wrangler NW Power Products as well as various-sized heavy ring terminals (the battery cables are 2/0) for all wires that the factory brings to the battery.



The OEM lugs are cast on the ends of the cables. I disconnected both batteries and covered the tops of both batteries with old towels. I used a drill press vise to hold the factory lugs while I hacksawed off as much of the lug as I could, without hitting the cable. I finished removing the cast lug with a small propane torch.



To protect the cable while working with the torch, I made 'shields' of two pieces of wood (three-quarter" square X 8"). I clamped the pieces of wood together and drilled a hole the diameter of the cable at the joint between the wood pieces. I was then able to separate the pieces of wood and reassemble around the cable next to the area with the lug. I had the ring terminals ready to install as soon as the lug was melted away. Any damage to the insulation was limited to discoloring and is covered with shrink tubing.



The only difficulties that I ran into was while using the torch as I heated and soldered on the new terminals. Rosin core solder is great when used out in the open but not the way I used it. I heated the ring terminal and melted some of the solder inside the terminal prior to placing the already-hot battery cables in the terminal. Further heating with the cable in the new terminal caused some of the rosin to boil, blowing both liquid solder and liquid rosin out of the terminal.



A fluxless solder should work just fine if you can find 50-50 lead/tin solder with no flux. The cables are already tinned from the lug that was just melted off and the new terminals shouldn't need flux. I think the newer no-lead fluxless solders that are used in plumbing have a higher melting temperature than lead/tin solder.



Cardboard is great for protecting things under the hood while using the propane torch.

 

[DieselMinded]

Cool ideas guys how ever a few are no longer avalible today... . I droped the ball on this one any thing new out there that may not require removing the factory termenal from the Big wires



DM

 

[Murle]

Get red top batteries and use the side ternimals.

 

[MMcKenzie]

After adding guages, CB, XM Radio, GPS, ect. to my truck I had the same problem. I went to the local Boater's World and purchased a marine distribution block. This allowed me to run one power cable to the battery and then branch off from the block to all my add ons. It also allowed the use of blade type fuses so I could take out all my inline spliced fuses for better acces.

 

[Jeff H]

Gee Thomas thought I was looking at my setup. I installed new cables and wires last fall. The military connectors is the way to go. Especially on the drivers side. Welders cable is much more afforable if any one is wondering.

 

[MKinner]

www.quickcable.com

 

[JCyrbok]

I second Waytek. ALot of hard to find stuff and neat things for electical work. They have stuff for this problem in there catalog and on their site.



J-