P80 positivebattery cable 9456836 NLA , OPTIONS?

[abscate]

And we continue to slide down the razor blade of life….

The nice positive battery cable 9456836 is no longer available from Volvo

In this thread we will document cablegauge, clamps, connectors to build our own

I tried one if the aftermarket ones last year and it lasted 12 months, but they are NLA, too.

[yanga001]

Excited for this thread, i made a doc before planning this and will add it in later.

From what i heard marine battery connectors are the best to use as it lets us remount the cable to the main fuse box to the new cable.

[erikv11]

This part 9456836 was always low quality, it was not a heavy gauge and often poorly crimped. There is no great loss in it being NLA. The positive cable is part of the harness and so 9456836 was an aftermarket solution for a separate cable; whether you ordered 9456836 from Volvo or externally you got exactly the same part.

There are some very nice DIY solutions in the forum from years ago e.g. viewtopic.php?t=61747

Also MVSer tryingbe made some excellent DIY cables, I did not search for his thread(s).

[abscate]

Neat solution frombob850 in the above link

Just another option for replacing a failed OE or Ramac cable:

My cable went bad on my 99 V70, so I found a Deka cable #00282 at the parts store that was exactly the same length and worked great with a little bending on the battery end eyelet to make it a 90 degree. At the starter end, no modification was needed. The Deka cable I got in the store is a 4 gauge "switch to starter cable", but I found later that they also make a 2 gauge version (model #00377) which is easily found on ebay or other sources.

What I did was put one of those universal marine terminals like this one: https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7511031

I had to drill out the hole on the B+ cable end so it would also fit on the terminal, but other than that, it was very easy and a clean looking install. Less than $15 in parts. Voltage at terminals is up over 14V now. Would be even better if I got the 2 gauge cable version.

And kudos to bdub for being the guy who will inspire us to routethe cable back in the factory channel

[MrAl]

Neat solution frombob850 in the above link

Just another option for replacing a failed OE or Ramac cable:

My cable went bad on my 99 V70, so I found a Deka cable #00282 at the parts store that was exactly the same length and worked great with a little bending on the battery end eyelet to make it a 90 degree. At the starter end, no modification was needed. The Deka cable I got in the store is a 4 gauge "switch to starter cable", but I found later that they also make a 2 gauge version (model #00377) which is easily found on ebay or other sources.

What I did was put one of those universal marine terminals like this one: https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7511031

I had to drill out the hole on the B+ cable end so it would also fit on the terminal, but other than that, it was very easy and a clean looking install. Less than $15 in parts. Voltage at terminals is up over 14V now. Would be even better if I got the 2 gauge cable version.

And kudos to bdub for being the guy who will inspire us to routethe cable back in the factory channel

Hi,

I would be interested to find out what is going wrong with these cables. Long long ago i worked in a part of the power industry where we made high power converters/inverters and we regularly used AWG 6 and AWG 8 and even AWG 4. The critical thing about these wires was when a cable for a certain device was made up the crimps had to be done right. The tool used for that was a little on the expensive side because it had to be strong and allow a regular human to be able to make a crimp.
The way we tested these was to install them on the unit it was used in, then run the unit at full load, then carefully touch the insulation on the connector or the wire insulation very close to the connector. If it was hot, then the crimp was no good.
On our cars i guess we cant do that because the starter only turns for a few seconds usually, but an inspection could work wonders here.
Also, it is possible to solder the connectors onto the wire but you need a really big high power soldering iron.

But it would be interesting to find out what goes wrong with the Volvo (or other make) cables. It's just a wire and some crimp on connectors i presume. If the crimps are bad sometimes the connectors can be cut off and a new connector crimped on, but if the wire is old this may not work very well unless each and every strand of wire is first cleaned. I have done this in the past, gently scraping every strand until they were all a bright and shiny copper color.

If you have any pics of a bad cable maybe you can post one or more. I'd love to see what happens to them, or maybe you can describe what goes wrong.

Thanks

[454cid]

I wish we could buy the Volvo battery terminals. I've never seen anything like them before. I've always hated the lead top post terminals that squeeze the post and often deform in the process.

[abscate]

I’m pretty sure 95% of the failures are in the wire to clamp crimp. If I find my current one onShagg is bad I will dissect it and document a new clamp approach

One thing not to ignore… the stock battery cables has a good strain releif on the battery tray ; that probably keeps the cable and clamp connection free of vibration

[454cid]

One thing not to ignore… the stock battery cables has a good strain releif on the battery tray ; that probably keeps the cable and clamp connection free of vibration

Have you been looking in my engine compartment??? I need to re-attach that to the tray.

[FireFox31]

If the crimps are bad sometimes the connectors can be cut off and a new connector crimped on, but if the wire is old this may not work very well unless each and every strand of wire is first cleaned. I have done this in the past, gently scraping every strand until they were all a bright and shiny copper color.

How do you clean every strand of the copper? Is there a chemical it could be dipped in to strip away the corrosion? I like this approach of repairing since I've seen negative cables corrode and brake over time. Just need excess length to cut off the weak part and find good copper.

[MrAl]

If the crimps are bad sometimes the connectors can be cut off and a new connector crimped on, but if the wire is old this may not work very well unless each and every strand of wire is first cleaned. I have done this in the past, gently scraping every strand until they were all a bright and shiny copper color.

How do you clean every strand of the copper? Is there a chemical it could be dipped in to strip away the corrosion? I like this approach of repairing since I've seen negative cables corrode and brake over time. Just need excess length to cut off the weak part and find good copper.

Hi,

Well when you dont have that excess length you have to come up with something else and a splice with very heavy cable is very hard to do.

The chemical in many types of solder is made just for that, but unfortunately the usefulness depends on how bad the corrosion is. If it is lightly corroded it may work fine, but for more heavy corrosion it doesnt work well at all. That's why i suggest cleaning each and every strand of the copper cable.
It isnt as hard as it sounds. You just need patience and determination. You can gently fold out one strand at a time, and while supporting it with one finger (such as the index finger) gently scrap away the corrosion with the blunt side of a razor knife (the kind with the push out blade). You can use the sharp edge of a knife but you have to be careful not to scrape away too much or you end up reducing the thickness of the wire. Obviously if the corrosion is too deep this will result in a thinner wire which may not be acceptable.
I had to do this a few times in the past in order to solder the wire because it is difficult or impossible to solder copper wire that has corroded too much to solder.
To support the wire, lay it lengthwise on one finger along the length of the upturned finger, then you can gently scrape along the length of the exposed strand. You also may have to carefully fold the wire on a different angle in order to reach the underside of the strand to be able to gently scrap that also. It is best to get the entire surface of each strand clean.

Another thought is that if you intend to replace the crimp connector at the end, you need a good crimp tool and these can be expensive. Cheap ones are not worth it they dont make a good crimp and that's the most important thing with these heavy wires. You can hammer the crimp on but it is always questionable if it worked right or not. The good crimpers use a ratcheting mechanism that provides a very large force to make the crimp. The cheap ones use a lever type mechanism which makes it hard to produce enough force. The good ones are also more precise as to where they apply the pressure to make the crimp and so the crimp is very repeatable from one crimp to the next.
I have also soldered the connectors on to the ends of heavy wire. You do have to make sure you get the end really really hot so the solder wicks deep into the strands bundle or it wont make a good connection. From working in the field and talking to some of the experts in the field of high power electrical circuits, they say a crimp is better than soldering. That is mostly because the crimp is more flexible than a thick hunk of solder because the wire can break at the point where it enters the solder chunk. I guess it also depends on how much the wire has to flex in the application and how much vibration it gets.

Please let us know how you make out with any of this regardless what method you use.