Need a new battery cable but which one?

[bennylava]

Hi all, I need a new negative battery cable for my 1994 GT. Looks like ford decided to integrate a couple of other ground wires into the OEM cable. This makes it a bit hard to locate a suitable replacement.

Anyone happen to know if somewhere still sells the original? And if not, what is the proper length so I can find a substitute? Thank you

 

[ttocs]

you can go to any car audio shop and get the wires and ends to make your own.

 

[Rod]

Take the old one off and take it down to a parts house and compare what they have. You should be able to fine one with auxiliary grounds built in. Make sure to get per built cables and not use the bolt/clamp on style ends. If you need to build it make sure to use crimp style ends and use the correct plyers to do the crimp, then solder it well & use shrink tube to cover it.

 

[bennylava]

Thanks for the replies!

But ugh, I think I'll just wait until I do an engine swap. The car is a garage queen anyway. Sounds like a lot of trouble for an engine I don't want anymore anyway. I was just thinking it would be nice if the car would move around the driveway easily.

What to do with an old 94 302 engine? I can't see any use for them other than being a boat anchor. They're so outclassed nowadays. They split in half at power numbers that newer engines come with, stock.

That's pretty damning. I mean what else do you keep them for... a museum piece? I'm sure someone else has that covered.

 

[ttocs]

are all the grounds bad or just a couple? I mean it is not a big deal to make an easy/short term ground to get it around till you do swap the engine.

If you do wait till you swap the engine I found it both easier and a good idea to make my chassis to motor ground by using the one of the bolts that holds the start on. Now if you have longtubes obviously that will make it harder to access but I know with my shorties it is both easy to access and out of the way. On top of that the starter itself pulls more current while cranking than any other part of the car so having the ground closest to it only makes sense imo. I moved my battery to the trunk so I actually welded some studs to a piece of sheet metal, then welded that to the floor of my trunk to ensure a solid and short connection there.

 

[duh09]

Thanks for the replies!

But ugh, I think I'll just wait until I do an engine swap. The car is a garage queen anyway. Sounds like a lot of trouble for an engine I don't want anymore anyway. I was just thinking it would be nice if the car would move around the driveway easily.

What to do with an old 94 302 engine? I can't see any use for them other than being a boat anchor. They're so outclassed nowadays. They split in half at power numbers that newer engines come with, stock.

That's pretty damning. I mean what else do you keep them for... a museum piece? I'm sure someone else has that covered.

Don't buy into the 500hp block splitting bologna. Does it happen? Sure, but no where near as frequently as the internet would have you believe.

Keep your stuff halfass balanced and run modern tuning stuff with a proper tune and ye olde 302 will do wonders.


EDIT: I guess it would help if I provided some actual info about the problem at hand. The shitty clamp down battery ends will work in a pinch to get it going, but they suck long term. I have one on my Cobra, it's been fine, just gotta readjust every now and then. There's a couple "better" options if you want to keep it simple. I used the Standard BP28 on some of our trucks. The end are bulky, but they've got space to clamp a wire on 3 sides and the 4 bolts work great to toss an eyelet on the smaller wires and keep it together. They're super bulky though and I'm not positive you'd have good clearance under the hood with them. I've moved over to used the Standard BP36N and BP36P (negative and positive) which are the "military" style ends for some builds. They have a solid bolt that runs through it, and then you'd just need to crimp or solder some eyelets on the wires you need to attach. If you put the flats of bigger wires against one another, you could technically run up to 4 large wires on one connector. They sit much more flat than the BP28 sets. I like them a lot on the Jeeps for running the typical power and grounds and also having good mounts for winch power cables.

I'll end up building new power and ground cables when I get closer to completing the motor work on my car. I haven't decided whether I'm going to go full on crimped ends of if I'm going to dig around for some of the high end audio connectors and use ferrules to keep it nice. We'll see.

 

[Musturd]

Like others have said they don’t just split . It’s usually bad tunes , detonation mixed with mediocre fuel . The 302 I just took out of my car was boosted since 2006 and made north of 500 for years . Sure a coyote is a far better option but you can make 550-600 wheel on a stock block and have them live for a long time .

 

[bennylava]

Take the old one off and take it down to a parts house and compare what they have. You should be able to fine one with auxiliary grounds built in. Make sure to get per built cables and not use the bolt/clamp on style ends. If you need to build it make sure to use crimp style ends and use the correct plyers to do the crimp, then solder it well & use shrink tube to cover it.

Well change of plans, I can't wait until I swap the engine. I have to replace the cable now so that the car runs reliably. I'm going to need to move it around a fair bit, because I need the space it's sitting in to fix two other cars that get driven a lot more.

Anyone here ever done this job? Replacing the negative battery cable. If so, was it a pain?

I would also like to ask you, Rod, if you could elaborate on the pre-built cables you mentioned. It seems the stock negative cable on a 94 GT is 58" long. With an 18" cable also needed to go from the battery to the distribution box. (not sure what gauge on that one)

Are you saying that the auto parts store will likely have 58" black 2 gauge cables that don't use the crappy old bolt/clamp style ends? IIRC you have no choice but to build your own, if you don't want to use those. And get the crimp on stuff. Just thought I would ask in case there's something way better out there, that I've never heard of.

Maybe there's an upgrade, like this:

Amazon.com

 

[Musturd]

Most auto parts stores can make you a cable on the spot with quality crimp ends

 

[Terrorist 5.0]

Why does everyone crap on the bolt/clamp style? They work just fine and make swapping terminals a breeze with no special tools necessary.

 

[Musturd]

Why does everyone crap on the bolt/clamp style? They work just fine and make swapping terminals a breeze with no special tools necessary.

Because they’re fuckin garbage .

 

[ttocs]

they work, some just do not like the look. When I upgraded cables I just got the cable, put my own ends on and installed it. You can get better wire and ends that way, you will probably be stuck with the stock style connectors at the autoparts store.

 

[weendoggy]

Because they’re fuckin garbage .

Only if you don't maintain your equipment. The same can be said about anything if you don't take care of it.

 

[ttocs]

agreed that most of them go bad because people do not pay attention to their battery and the end corrodes because of the battery, not the end. Otherwise they are a simple solution and why they are used like they are.

 

[Musturd]

I’ve got fancy high end audio ones on my junk . Or I like the nice solder on ones .

 

[weendoggy]

I've made my own cables for years, and a combination of crimp/solder/shrink wrap.

 

[ttocs]

I’ve got fancy high end audio ones on my junk . Or I like the nice solder on ones .

I read about problems that can be caused by soldering for years but it always went against what I was taught that soldering was the best way. Now my old ranger I soldered the ends on my power wires when I upgraded all of them and thought it was done and solid. It took years but I started to have charging issues and was amazed when I popped the hood to discover the power wire right off the alt had torn for lack of a better term. The portion of the wire that absorbed the solder was solid, and there was just a little 3" section between it and the next spot I had it held down on and that small section was able to wiggle a little when the motor had a vibration. Over time the area of the wire where the solid/soldered section met the regular wire slowly cut one of the wires at a time till there was only 4-5 wires left holding it on.

With that being said I just soldered some wires to add trailer wiring to the daily just because of the location and how they are ran but there is a time and a place for each connection, short of T-taps there is just no good reason to use those other than laziness...

 

[Musturd]

I've made my own cables for years, and a combination of crimp/solder/shrink wrap.

Same none of the ones you listed are cheapo ones though

I read about problems that can be caused by soldering for years but it always went against what I was taught that soldering was the best way. Now my old ranger I soldered the ends on my power wires when I upgraded all of them and thought it was done and solid. It took years but I started to have charging issues and was amazed when I popped the hood to discover the power wire right off the alt had torn for lack of a better term. The portion of the wire that absorbed the solder was solid, and there was just a little 3" section between it and the next spot I had it held down on and that small section was able to wiggle a little when the motor had a vibration. Over time the area of the wire where the solid/soldered section met the regular wire slowly cut one of the wires at a time till there was only 4-5 wires left holding it on.

With that being said I just soldered some wires to add trailer wiring to the daily just because of the location and how they are ran but there is a time and a place for each connection, short of T-taps there is just no good reason to use those other than laziness...

I don’t like solder for most stuff on cars. On my diesel trucks I usually solder on terminals with heat shrink when building new cables the trucks see extreme winter conditions never an issue .

 

[Terrorist 5.0]

I can see how they are an issue (they are made of a soft metal and when people crank down on them it pulls the nut through the whole terminal and ruins it), but I just end up using washers on either end and a separate nut, that way they will never be ruined. I would take that style rather than the crimp on ends any day of the week.

 

[Musturd]

I can see how they are an issue (they are made of a soft metal and when people crank down on them it pulls the nut through the whole terminal and ruins it), but I just end up using washers on either end and a separate nut, that way they will never be ruined. I would take that style rather than the crimp on ends any day of the week.

lol . Well it’s ok to use the 4 dollar ones on your car . I don’t like those clamps on my car like I said they’re a last option emergency type deal . I’ve got various relays running dual fuel pumps and other stuff with battery in the trunk so quality terminals with a few locations for direct power to the battery were a must . Wasn’t trying to have a 4-8 wires on one stud like some ghetto Surrey shit .