I'll tag @Jesser02EX for you since he may not have email notifications set for replies and posts on this thread. If he does, well then he gets twice the notification!

Good luck with your project!

 

I don’t think you’d want a soldered connection for any large gauge termination like a battery cable. I have seen people flow solder into the termination after it has been hydraulically crimped though. Some ring terminations have a hole in the back to do that. Those look very high quality though.

 

Took me a while...

Q1: you are right, I had purchased 90’s for several connections but needed up only needing straight lugs as shown in the photos.

Q2: yes, I did this because good grounds are so important. I had originally planned to replace the positives too, but, when I was able to strip the wire, I found it was clean so I kept the factory intern connect between the batteries and added a secondary charging circuit to the drivers side battery. Preference and research said all would be ok.

Q3: yes. My starter cable is 4/0 so I had to use the correct gauge lug. All factory starter cables, as far as I know, are 4/0 on the 7.3. All three of mine are the same.

Q4: The passenger side, being the primary cranking battery in the factory design, seem to be well engineered by Ford. I know I personally have a number of accessories on the drivers side battery and resistance could be introduced by the long inter-connect. Adding a secondary charging circuit helped to ensure the positive pixies has a clear path to both batteries. Adding the additional grounds ensured the overall charging loop was solid.

this process has been documented since the early days of boom-boom car stereos. You need a good path for juice to flow. As I’ve built my excursion, I had one mission in mind, build the truck to be the best stock truck possible.

Making these few electrical upgrades has ensured I have a good current path. I hope this has helped you in your journey to update your rig.

//Jesse

 

I know this is an older thread, but I just wanted to bump it for anyone else who, like myself, are in the process of doing this upgrade and needed some insight. Great thread OP and tons of good pictures/info here.

 

Great thread. Everything has been cover above. Here are my results:

 

some years ago i made some marine style battery cables using those el cheapo hydraulic crimpers, the crimps were very poor quality because the die sizes are not industry standard.

a bit of research lead me to this write up and got me squared away. now my crimps are mil-spec and marine worthy.

worth a read if you are considering making your own cables
https://marinehowto.com/making-your-own-battery-cables/

 

Lookin’ good!

 

I think it looks good too! Installing these terminals is on my to do list, but the OEM terminals are still in good shape so it is lower on the list.

For what it is worth, I used a 16 ton crimp tool similar to what Jesser02EX has in the picture in the first post and it worked great. I used it for a complete off grid solar install on my 5th wheel camper and I had zero problems with it creating a quality crimp. I tested each lug for resistance continuity and mechanical bond strength before sealing the joint with heat shrink. Bottom line is that you don't always need to spend a lot of money to get a great result.

The main part of the off grid solar install is pictured below. This is with the protective cover off of it.

 

I need to to learn more about setting up off grid solar. Clean install in that image.

 

I agree the die issue needs to be figured out. I'm surprised no one in the US hasn't made a set.

 

I've found that attaching the terminals directly to the military battery terminal will result in loosening pretty quickly. The solution I landed on is to use longer fine thread bolts and first put a split lock washer and nut to the battery terminal, then the wire eyelets then another nut. This has worked better.

 

Maybe a nylock nut would hold it.

 

Looks nice. I am debating whether or not to just replace the whole positive cable or try to repair the passenger side positive mess on mine. Riff Raff had them listed for $100 but said they are discontinued in my year range. That would have been a no-brainer. The rubber covers are a nice safety idea too.

 

Thanks for the write up Jesser. On my 01 Ex I have had the positive cable on the passenger side rigged for a while. I couldn't justify buying new cables a little loan the $300 set.
Typically I solder the terminals to the cable, but that would've been difficult doing in the truck and sure didn't feel like taking them out to do it.
So I but a similar crimper but just a little smaller as I would never need the largest dies, but this one went down to the next size below the 16mm, of 10mm. Hopefully it will last but if it don't I still came out cheaper than a $300 cable set.
My cables were a little different they were as follows-
Starter cable measured 7/16" dia. and the 2/0 Ancor terminal fit nicely, the crimper die I used was 50mm.
Interconnect cable measured 5/16" dia. and the 2 ga terminal was used, the crimper die was 35mm.
Firewall solenoid cable measured 3/16" dia. and 8 ga terminal was used, the crimper die was 10mm.