When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Back when I bought the cables to measure to see the difference between the early and late versions they were way cheaper. copper has had spikes in price, and when they go down the component price never does.
You are not the first with that same type of failure. In my album for battery cable redesign, I have a number of photos of the same failures. In their effort to reduce toxic metals these have been weakened in strength and while its only a short pathway, conductivity too.
Here is one person's solution to your cable issue. It's not bad and not unlike what I was proposing with the long ell terminal. Crimp dependent.
I didn't mean to dissuade you from doing this. Along with Compas Marine, there have been other reviews of the cheaper hydraulic crimpers in their ability to do successful crimps. Admittedly, my definition of success is different than others. Those were the direction I really wanted to do, small, cheap, easy to crimp. I've even thought of building a fixture to use a die set now that I have a press. I just couldn't go there with my plans in mind with those crimpers, to make my own ideal cables, do a video about it, and make a few examples.
You could possibly do this with soldering the terminals, and I might do that once I play with the project if it proves better. Got the parts, got the cable, and got the tools. Just need the test bed running......
But you're right, you need to feel comfortable selling the truck to someone you know. And if showing a new, not repaired cable gives you a better feel and is a better selling perspective, it's the best choice.
Loney cable in the background.....bought mid 2017. By the time I'm ready, there will only be 12 people in the country with 6,0s.
If a person could get there hands on the stock clamp in the new un-used form it would easy to make a clean repair kit.
Just before I pulled the trigger last night I dubbed checked my sighting and it's a good thing. I got to digging in the
viehicle applacation sheets and that one cable was for the 03~04. The 05~07 was $119 but free shipping. I also found
that a lot of the "FORD" parts on Ebay are or much be Grey Market. I think this because when you start reading and come
across there warrantee and see things like 90 days or 1 year. To me that takes it out of a legitimate sales.
On a side note I think it would be an interesting conversation to sit down and talk with a Ford parts marketing rep
that is up high in the chain and is well informed. Might be dry at times but if I could get half of my questions answered
it may well be worth the sleepy parts. The one thing I don't get is why local dealers run there prices so high when people
can go to the local auto parts store and by almost the same part for less than half or in some cases the same part.
Back when Ford had a good parts search tool and at least published the suggested price most local dealers were taking
that price and selling the part at 1.5X that. Do they just not want to sell parts or what?
Anyway the cable will be here on the 28th. The funny thing was for $5.99 more you could have it sent by one of the USPS
faster services. Guess when it would show up if I did that. Jan 28th. So free shipping or USPS Priority and the same day.
Gee that is a hard one, NOT! Also the guy selling the item for slightly less and only 90 warrantee with $11.00 shipping
would not show up until Jan 30th. So many hard choices.
I think if mine ever need replaced, I will be replacing them with military style terminals at the battery as that is what I already run on my jeep. Right now however the terminals are in great shape, so I'm leaving them alone. I still need to add the 70"ish cable from drivers to passenger to complete the cabling. I'm in socal so 1/0 should work fine and I have some of that.
Well the person on Fleabay sent me a message something about PO Box and FedEx.
But they have had sense Tuesday to contact me and get that fixed. So I am a bit hot.
I went ahead and pulled the chunk of 2/00 cable and used the m Ohm meter and I was getting 0.003Ω
for the 4'5" cable.
Well in looking around with Google I found that the 4.5 feet of wire should have this for total resistance: 0.0004Ω
That section I have is at 0.0030Ω. So that puts the reading at over 0.0026Ω over what it should be. Not sure
if that is enough to be an issue of not. Will have to wait on the cable to show up.
Well in looking around with Google I found that the 4.5 feet of wire should have this for total resistance: 0.0004Ω That section I have is at 0.0030Ω. So that puts the reading at over 0.0026Ω over what it should be. Not sure if that is enough to be an issue of not. Will have to wait on the cable to show up.
Absolutely, remember when dealing with low voltage high current - 12VDC at a couple hundred amperes, even 10 or 15 hundredths of an ohm is plenty to cripple a starter. Alternator will choke too. This is why resistance values are converted to voltage drop for current flow, there aren't any resistance specs in the manuals as such. Circuits are always measured for voltage drop while energized, under load, it's the only way.
It's hard to be accurate down in the ten-thousanths of an ohm with equipment readily available to the layman. That said maybe you're working with some badass equipment. If I did my math right your 2/0 AWG is measuring like 8 AWG. However Tedster9 is absolutely right voltage drop will tell the real story. I would trust a voltage drop measurement long before resistance at such low figures with any equipment I have available.
I was unable to find an easy calculation for find the voltage drop with the numbers I had.
There was no way I would stick that cable back in to run it again.
Now as for the meter I do have one that used some very sensitive readings.
Handy little meter for getting those finer points when checking resistance. It used a set of Kelvin clips to do the heavy lifting.
It was a case of being in the right place at the right time to come across this meter. Always wanted one. Just could not justify it with the going price.
Here is a quick description of how Kelvin clips work When a Kelvin connection is used, current is supplied via a pair of force connections (current leads). These generate a voltage drop
across the impedance to be measured according to Ohm's law V=IR. ... It is common to provide 4-wire connections to current-sensing shunt
resistors of low resistance operating at high current.
The device in the clips in the photo is an injector. I was looking to see what the resistance of the spool valve coils were.
They came out really close to each other. I think the difference was only in the range of 0.002Ω and the power from the
FICM being 48VDC @ 20~30A. The amperage varies on temp. If I understand what Ed was telling me at the time.
The beauty of voltage drop testing is no special equipment is required, no disassembling or disconnecting anything, just a low ranging voltmeter. Set it on the lowest voltage position. Put the positive test lead on the center of the positive battery post and the other on the positive terminal of the starter and crank the engine over for several seconds. Electricity is "lazy" and any voltage being lost in corrosion or resistance connections takes the easier path through the voltmeter. More than +0.4 or +0.5 tenths of a volt is probably excessive. Same test on the negative battery post and case of starter itself. A little less, +0.2 volts, is the limit for the ground side. Note while it's called a "voltage drop" test the voltage displayed on the voltmeter is a positive number.
The charging system is tested the same way, even a paper thin nearly invisible layer of corrosion on connections or ground is enough to cripple alternator current output, though the voltage output will read OK. One thing I noticed about late model modern vehicles is they use dissimilar metals for the main battery ground cable to engine block connection!
Aluminum and cast iron mating together as an electrical connection isn't the end of the world, but it wouldn't be my first choice. Grind down to clean, bright shiny metal and coat with NO-OX, tighten securely, good cables & terminals & ground points keep electrons happy.
The issue being I already knew that the cable was bad and have a new one on the way
I had it out before I thought about testing it so that is why the milliohm meter testing and
not doing a proper voltage drop test.
.......... Grind down to clean, bright shiny metal and coat with NO-OX, tighten securely, good cables & terminals & ground points keep electrons happy.
