Negative battery cable repair or replacement

[abscate]

I heated up the positive clamp to try and separate it on a Volvo positive…no go. They are crimped

[FireFox31]

I'm tempted to weld a junction block to the original Volvo negative battery post terminal. The junction block (or whatever it's called) would allow two new negative cables with ring terminals to be screwed to it.

Is a weld conductive enough? What metal is the battery post terminal?

[abscate]

They are lead on Volvo. They won’t weld too well and I don’t have enough IQ points to spare from the lead time exposure, either. I’m thinking I can cut and drill out the positive, then clean it and solder in a new cable or maybe even the old one with shiny copper

[MrAl]

I'm tempted to weld a junction block to the original Volvo negative battery post terminal. The junction block (or whatever it's called) would allow two new negative cables with ring terminals to be screwed to it.

Is a weld conductive enough? What metal is the battery post terminal?

Hi,

I think you can solder but you need a big soldering iron or a torch and with a torch it's not the easy to keep the metal clean while heating so a soldering iron tip might work better. You could practice on an old junked cable.
It's too bad i cant remember everything i did like this years ago but it was almost 50 years ago now.
I always remembered that it takes a lot of a lot of a lot of heat to get the solder to flow with those big thick #8, #6, #4 AWG wires. When i worked in the industry the standard was to crimp not to solder. The crimps were supposed to be better. The heavy duty tools were available for that though not sure how much they are to purchase these days.
They do make brass battery post terminals but not sure where to get them anymore. That was also about 20 years ago.

Do they still make those self crimping battery terminals anymore? I have used these in the past 20 years too. They are the kind that look like normal battery post connectors that slip over the battery post then you tighten up the bolt and nut. The wire attaches to that terminal by slipping the wire under the clamping mechanism then tightening the two bolts. When the bolts are tight the wire is clamped down onto the post connector and that is what makes the wire to post connector contact. The post connector has it's own bolt and nut like most regular battery post terminal connectors.
If we cant find one somewhere i can draw a quick drawing to show what this looks like, if by chance you havent seen one yet but i bet you did.

Oh found a pic right away seems they are still very common...

[abscate]

What seems to be missing is the nice clamp with the 90 degree turn down to route the cables cleanly like Volvo did.

I’ve bought those quick release type clamps and a separate 90 degree copper lug and will piece those together as a winter project.

[MrAl]

What seems to be missing is the nice clamp with the 90 degree turn down to route the cables cleanly like Volvo did.

I’ve bought those quick release type clamps and a separate 90 degree copper lug and will piece those together as a winter project.

Hi,

That sounds interesting would be nice to see a pic or two.

[Oly850]

I would pass on trying to make your own, it always ends in tears. You could just take the whole cable to your favorite auto parts store and they’ll sell you one just like it only black for $15.

I have done this before with good results.

Thomas

[MrAl]

I would pass on trying to make your own, it always ends in tears. You could just take the whole cable to your favorite auto parts store and they’ll sell you one just like it only black for $15.

I have done this before with good results.

Thomas

Hi,

Doesnt Volvo use a special design?

[abscate]

Things you have to worry about on both making your own or using a parts store piece

The positive takes a quick 90 degree turn down and is strain relieved at the battery tray to clear engine parts. You have to be careful routing the cable for Chafe, it’s unfused of course….

The connectors have to be crimped so that the connector lies tangent to the outside case of the cable, so thst they lie flat against the mount surfaces of the alternator and starter

These ones from Amazon fit a p80 well, just put on Shagg.


[url =https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082RYYPZX?ps ... ct_details]battery to starter[/url]


Alternator to starter cable

I connected the cable to the positive with this clamp

battery clamp

[amblerman]

back in 8/2019 I decided to replace all my battery cables and I went the route of making my own.


I didn't look on amazon for fancy batter cable terminals (wish I did) but ended up going with this set up.

battery.png (2.91 MiB) Viewed 509 times

This set up has been working fine for over 3 years now but probably < 10K miles as I drive so little theses days.

I sourced the red wire and lugs from West Marine. I ordered the blue wire online for the extra 5 hp/ft the Polestar blue color gives me.

it would have been cheaper to just buy pre-made cables but I enjoyed the project. We'll see how long this lasts me.
Note I did install a proper cover over the + terminal as part of the project.

Th wing nuts seem to be holding fine but I think I should swap those out for proper nuts.
One nice aspect of this type of terminal block is I can disconnect the negative side without removing terminal form the post. That remains tight and I just have to remove the wires and then tuck them behind battery.

-A