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AR15.COM
5/17/2017 12:28:01 PM EDT
I have been having a strange problem with my truck battery, and I'm wondering if there is any solution.

About 1 month ago I got my truck battery replaced because it had died after only 6 months of use - and now I am having problems with the new one.

It seems the positive terminal may be undersized. The ring/cable keeps coming loose on the battery, and when that happens, it won't start. Usually I can jiggle the cable, and then it will work. I have tried tightening the cable, but it appears to be tightened all the way and still isn't tight enough.

I must be missing something obvious, right ? I tried cleaning the cable, that didn't help too much.
5/17/2017 12:37:12 PM EDT
[#1]
Replace the end on the battery cable. It will only be a few dollars and easily completed.

With a bad connection you are not properly charging the battery either. You could temporarily loosen the cable, shim it with a piece of scrap copper or something and retighten it. Almost anything conductive and making a large amount of contact area would work for an emergency bandaid to your problem.
5/17/2017 1:28:08 PM EDT
[#2]
Quote History
Quoted:
Replace the end on the battery cable. It will only be a few dollars and easily completed.

With a bad connection you are not properly charging the battery either. You could temporarily loosen the cable, shim it with a piece of scrap copper or something and retighten it. Almost anything conductive and making a large amount of contact area would work for an emergency bandaid to your problem.
View Quote
Good  to know
5/17/2017 1:51:38 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote History
Quoted:
Replace the end on the battery cable. It will only be a few dollars and easily completed.

With a bad connection you are not properly charging the battery either. You could temporarily loosen the cable, shim it with a piece of scrap copper or something and retighten it. Almost anything conductive and making a large amount of contact area would work for an emergency bandaid to your problem.
View Quote
Thank you! I suspected this would be the answer. Frankly, I am a little bit nervous working with the car battery. I used to do car audio stuff and I once welded a 4 gauge copper wire to my car because it was connected to the positive terminal. I'll go buy a battery cable "end" today and install it. It sucks having to pop the hood and jiggle the cable almost once a day.