Kind of the same here - Basically I think some marine battery wiring will fix this right - a top-post connector with a binding post to which you can connect wires that have ring connectors. To wit:
[url]
http://www.discountmarinesupplies.com/Lugs_Terminals-SEACHOICE_BATTERY_TERMINAL_SET.html[/url]

Actually, such terminals are available as most Wal-Marts in the automotive section near the batteries. What they may not have is the terminal covers - again, to wit:
[url]
http://www.discountmarinesupplies.com/Lugs_Terminals-SEACHOICE_MARINE_BATTERY_TERMINAL_COVERS.html[/url]

should not be hard to get these at a marine store near you. Also - if you are going to a pick-and-pull that has older foreign cars sitting around, odds are you can get suitable terminals and covers if you look around enough. On older Nissan and Subaru (at least ones I have owned) it was common to use an assembled terminal instead of a swaged one.

Albertj

Does anyone know what gauge the accessory wire is?

O'Reilly's has the 2 guage wire with top mount

Where do you get the connectors to splice these big cables together? O'Reilly's doesn't have anything on their website (or I'm missing it one).

What do you guys think of battery washers -



I've never seen anyone use these.

Rickw wrote:

If you don't use a bolt / screw type connector and want to swedge a connector or eyelet terminal to end of cable you can buy an inexpensive crimper (less than $20.00) from your local welding supply store. I purchased the tool and #4 welding cable last year when I was making all new cables for a motorcycle and it works excellent.

Is that it?

I've been googling around, seems a vice or a blunt chisel will work too. Those I have.

Albertj - I'm not sure where a marine supply store is around here, but being by a couple of lakes we must have one. I'll ask around.

Yes, that's the tool and it does a proper job of crimping the cable ends or eyelets. The vise or blunt chisel may work, but I don't know what kind of a crimp you will end up with. Probably not pretty or tight enough in the right places. If you have extra cable length and terminals try the blunt chisel on a solid steel surface, if it doesn't work out you can cut it off and try the crimper.

My opinion: get the welding crimper, or design the cable on paper and get a local auto/marine/welding shop to make up the cable for you. Or - try the following...

I was thinking about this some more. Why trash a cable that's perfectly good (the one already in the car) except one end. Duh... so how about installing a positive terminal block under the rear seat somewhere, then get one of those welding crimpers and crimp ring terminals on. One terminal gets crimped onto the end of your old cable (cut the end off and replace with ring terminal) and the other terminal gets crimped onto a 1-foot or so long piece of battery cable. Or just buy a piece of cable around a foot or 18" long with the ring terminals already crimped on? Heck, I bet you can already find a terminal wire with a covered zinc/lead or brass battery connector on one end and a ring terminal on the other, that has 12" or 18" of #2 gauge cable, somewhere. WalMart, an audiophile place, or a marine parts place. Anyway... the other end of that battery cable then has another ring terminal, to which you attach the battery terminal connector via the bolt/wing nut. Or get a battery cable with conventional battery connector on one end and ring terminal on the other. Then you don't have to buy a battery terminal with the stud. Just put ring terminals on those black wires that are now on the positive cable, and connect them to the positive terminal block.

nice and neat...

IF you go to a GM dealer you can get a positive terminal block just like the one under the hood, with cover and everything. GM p/n 25607779. It would be like $11.00 at the dealer, or $6.14 plus from Monster. You may want the nut 11502812 and screw 16516859 also. Or - splurge - go to a full-line hardware store (just about any big Do-It Center) and get stainless steel ones (they are common hardware metric #10 x 1.5).

Get it? old cable gets cut and a new ring terminal goes on the end instead of the terminal that's on it. The other wires off the old terminal just get ring terminals as well, whcih can be crimped on with a hand tool. . They all connect to the terminal block, with POSITIVE silk screened on and everything, that you buy from a GM dealer and install in the battery well. From that terminal block run a single wire to the positive terminal of the battery.

Then wha-la, you are done! Man... why didn't I think of this earlier?

Albertj

I don't see the advantage of using a terminal block over a connect (if I can find a 2 gauge connect).

If I use marine grade stuff elsewhere, the terminal block won't be marine grade.

But I haven't found a reasonably priced solution for marine grade cable yet, so who knows if I'll go that way or not.

At my local auto parts store they carry every diameter battery cable you could want in bulk, sold by the foot. And they have all the different terminal ends. They even have the swedging tool to make the ends up for you for the price of the parts.

Maybe I just need to get out and go shopping - but it's hard when your ride won't start

Is there anything like this for 2 gauge wire?

I was thinking of cutting a few inches off the stock cable and using one of these to put on a few inches of new wire and a new terminal. But I haven't seen a 2 gauge connector yet, which probably means it's a bad idea and I should go with your's instead.

Is this the right size:
http://www.solarseller.com/butt_connectors__cable_splices__magna_splice__quick_cable.htm


Bert

Here is another one:
http://www.phillipsind.com/product/188.html

If you know someone who works for the local power company they will have the big hex crimper tool that you might could borrow or someone who works as a commercial electrician would have one also.
If there is a Fastenal store near you they might let you use a crimper, and they sell the butt splices also.

Bert

We do have a Fastenal.

And I never remember to ask about borrowing these things . . .

Sometimes we miss the obvious . . .

Like charging through the terminal block under the hood instead of pulling the battery out.

I always forget it's there.

I monkeyed around with the stock terminal some more and got it to start again. I pulled the rubber boot off the contact and cleaned it up better. When i was putting the boot back on I got to thinking about how much it overlapped the contact - what if it was getting squeezed between the cable contact and the battery contact, instead of going around the battery contact? That would explain why I was having to make torque the bolt down so tight to get a connection. I took the boot back off and tried it that way - worked fine right off the bat without having to be overtightened (which it can't be any more since the hole is stripped).

Just a temporary solution while I get the rest of this stuff together . . .

I'll be headed to Lowes in a few days. I'll see what they've got there. I kinda like the idea of using the marine grade supplies too. Decisions, decisions!