Hi all. I know many of you are going to have a fit over this post, and I'm expecting to be flamed to hell and back.. but here goes anyway.

1. Frozen battery about a month ago, thawed it out, charged it, tested it, carbon piled it at full 750 CCA and it still works. I don't know why, and I'm not questioning it.

2. Alternator took a nose dive and was not charging, it was outputting 11 volts. Replaced it.

3. Replaced the cable ends on the battery quite a while ago.

4. Getting a flickering battery light. If I rev the engine to about 4K for a second, the battery light USUALLY goes away. Not always.. I'm guessing vibration related. Yes it is a manual transmission.

I checked the positive side of the charging circuit and there's zero problems. Everything is ship-shape.

I'm pretty sure the problem lays in the ground terminal cable end itself. It's got 4 cables going to it and room for only one on the replacement terminal. I'm wondering where the @)&# these 4 cables go. I know one small one goes directly in front of the battery to the radiator core support for a chassis ground. Two of the other are what appears to be computer grounds, but I lose them in the harness next to the battery. Can someone be so kind to tell me where these cables go? What I'd like to do is find them and replace the entire run of the grounding cables to a 'grounding block' that I'll mount just below the battery tray, and then run a massive cable to the battery post as I'm having problems keeping all four of these little buggers in the grounding terminal itself. Do you foresee any problems?

Yes. This was a mess of information, but I think I have everything in there. I just got off work and my brain is very very fried and I'm going to bed. If you have questions, just ask.

Thanks much folks.

P.S. I love the ol' gay, but she's trying my patience right now. Spring's comin' and I wanna put up the F150 before gas prices start going skyward again. Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

 

Sounds like your problems may be in the battery cable ground lug/s, if it's connections are so loose that the wires fall out!!!!

Go buy OEM battery cables for it.

Or maybe in the short term, add a big diameter piece of shrink tubing to the ground cable & solder the wires in the ground lug, then slide the heat shrink tubing over the connection & heat shrink the tubing tight, for stress relief, until you can get a OEM cable replacement.

If you do the ground block addition, I think I'd try to find a location other than under the battery tray, because of corrosion reasons, or at least cover it, so that any liquid draining from the battery tray can't corroded the ground block connections.

You might consider running this puppy by your favorite autoparts store for a no cost in vehicle, electrical system check up (with all of the systems parts in place), via their portable electrical system tester. Properly used it should be able to sniff the culprit out.

Yup, it's ok to suspect a previously discharged & frozen, but thawed out & recharged battery.

Right now though I'd concentrate on the battery lug connections, especially the loose ground lug, but in the end, get both battery cables replaced with an OEM set.

A whole bunch of thoughts for pondering.
Let us know how it goes.

 

So I got pissed, replaced the negative terminal with a good brass connection. cut about 1/2 an inch off all 4 cables and connected them to the new brass terminal and it seems... and I stress seems.. so far to have solved the problem. I'll let you all know in a week or so if that damn battery light stays away. Thanks.

When I can afford it, I think I'll dump a hundred bucks in quality OEM cables and nip this problem squarely in the bum. In the meantime, my F150 needs brakes... desperately.