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Building: It is an ex-Locost - it has gone to the IOW!
posted on 16/8/17 at 03:06 PM
Best battery connectors?
I went out for a drive today, and when I was out I stopped off to get some petrol. When I tried to restart the car - nothing. It didn't sound
like the common x-flow inertia starter jam, so I had a good look at the battery connectors. After fiddling and waggling them for a while the car
started again, so I drove home and investigated. The battery terminals were clean and the clamps were on tight, but the 2 screws on each clamp were
slack - it took almost 1 turn on each to tighten them up again. I put a test meter on the battery and did the usual tests (on and off load, engine
off & on) and everything seemed fit for purpose, so the loose screws were almost certainly the cause of my problem. My guess is that a
combination of a coarse screw thread combined with vibration, hot-and-cold cycles and compression of the battery cable strands all contributed.
This is the type of clamp I have currently:
All the other connectors on my battery leads are either crimped or soldered - I don't like screw cable clamps!
So now I'm looking for recommendations for a better quality terminal clamp for round posts - I don't care whether it's bolted onto
the post or a quick-release type, although I probably prefer the semi-permanent type, as I don't remove the battery from the car very often.
I always use the ones with studs built in - crimp a ring terminal/lug on the cable end (think my Defender uses M10 versions, but M8 should suffice for
smaller applications).
Great idea, while look nice and work quite well, it blocks the ablity to just jump leads direct to the battery.
The way my car's wired, I can put the +Ve lead onto the starter solenoid so that's not a problem. The big problem I encountered with
those is with the Chinese rip-off versions that everyone sells these days - I used to have a really good pair of these* until I changed to a
Ford-style battery with flat terminals, but when that battery died I struggled to replace it and had to go back to post connectors.
* Note to 907 - I don't expect you to give them back, Paul!
Photo Archive
Building: It is an ex-Locost - it has gone to the IOW!
posted on 16/8/17 at 05:17 PM
quote:Originally posted by Charlie_Zetec
I always use the ones with studs built in - crimp a ring terminal/lug on the cable end (think my Defender uses M10 versions, but M8 should suffice for
smaller applications).
I was considering that type - the only concern is that I like an insulated cover on the +Ve terminal, and I haven't seen anything suitable on
ebay. Otherwise it looks good, and I can crimp or solder terminal rings on the leads.
Great idea, while look nice and work quite well, it blocks the ablity to just jump leads direct to the battery.
The way my car's wired, I can put the +Ve lead onto the starter solenoid so that's not a problem. The big problem I encountered with
those is with the Chinese rip-off versions that everyone sells these days - I used to have a really good pair of these* until I changed to a
Ford-style battery with flat terminals, but when that battery died I struggled to replace it and had to go back to post connectors.
They're the best bit of the car 
