Is it the battery cable

[kcw12]

Last night i hit a bump pretty hard, I stopped at a friends house and shut it off. I got out and it started VERY slowly. I got home got dad out there and was like, its startin slow, I hit the Key and she fired like normal, so i didnt think anything about it. Well this morning i go out and hit the key, starts slow again, like weak batteries. Well i get to work this morn and pop the hood start pokin around. Luckly i got a helping hand, and he pulled on the cable while i started it, and it started like normal, he let loose of the hot cable (one that goes between batteries) and it started sluggish again. The question is where do i find this cable? and whats the part #

 

[diesel4me2]

this is where i got mine http://www.custombatterycables.com/application/f350_cables.htm good fit, good price.
chris

 

[argve]

any auto electric shop or welding supply house can make you a cable for a decent price. You don't have to have one pre-made. Plus it will be cheaper to have some make on up in a jiffy.

 

[kcw12]

Well i just looked through the phonebook, and all they cant make me any cables....I have to get one though autozone, just great

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

Well i just looked through the phonebook, and all they cant make me any cables....I have to get one though autozone, just great

Before you panic, there are about a gazillion threads in this site, and all other truck sites, about doing away with that silly HOT cable that has the terminal made in the middle of it.

What I did was, (and I just remodeled my existing cable and didn't spend over five bucks) cut the lead terminals off, as close to the ends as possible, saving as much cable as possible.

I installed MARINE style terminal/adapters to the lead posts of the batteries.


I crimped 2/0, if I remember correctly, COPPER RING-STYLE LUGs to all the cable ends.

Special crimpers are nice, but not at all necessary.

I have crimped dozens by clamping a short length of angle-iron in a drill-press vise (not on the press), and using the "trough" of the angle-iron as sort of an anvil, and making two deep dimples in the copper with a pointy-ended punch and big hammer.

Saturate the stripped ends of the cables with Vaseline, prior to sticking them in the copper lugs, and this will prevent any corrossion/oxidation from growing in there.

If you like, you can dress up your work with some big heat-shrink tube, RED on HOT and BLACK on GROUND.

What happens is that you make TWO cables out of the one, with the section between batteries being a seperate cable by itself.

After you get this done, then the next time you need batteries, you can use Group 30-S or Group 31-S STUD-TYPE batteries, like the big trucks use.

They will fit right in the existing holders and are a lot better than the Group 27-F that came in these trucks.

The COPPER LUGS are way superior to the old trouble-some clamp-on lead style ends, and a lot less headache to deal with.

I have seven trucks in the yard, with all being converted this way, and untelling how many I have had in the past.

 

[kcw12]

im not sure what type of batteries i got but they are not the stock batteries. Im going to replace the cable, and bolt my batteries in better, its not where the lead thing clamps to the battery, its were the wire goes into the lead thing, or the wire is broke. My batteries aren't held in there good enough, so i need to get this fixed.

 

[wwwabbit]

Check your cables for sure, and make sure you have good ends. I had something similar happen to me, ended up being brushes on the starter. If you catch it before you do much damage you can get away with just replacing brushes.

 

[kcw12]

wwabbit its not the starter, it will crank slowly until i have someone move the cable just right, then itll turn over like a stripped ass ape

 

[wwwabbit]

Just throwing it out there, mine was doing about what you describe and I was sure it was the cables as well. I did all the ends marine style and it made it better for a bit, but I still had hit and miss slow crank overs, often speeding up after 2-10 seconds of spinning the starter. I think the little extra bit of voltage that got to the starter by cleaning the cables, or wiggling them helped it get over the short brushes, but it didn't help for long.

The marine ends are easy to do (I soldered mine on after crimping) and you can get adapters for the top post style batteries to give you the wing nut screw terminals for the marine eyelets. Keep in mind that pos and neg are different sizes.

 

[kcw12]

My batteries have them terminals, i may do that, now its crankin just fine, i think it may be the starter GRRRRRRRRR. Tonight im gonna take the battery cable off, clean all my battery posts and the such, cleanr the cable ends, clean all the grounds, and everything. And if it still does it, im gettin the starter tested. idont think its the cable now, thats wwwabbit for the idea, your probably right, the ugy put a new cable on the truck before i got it. so i dunno, im gonna do some end cleaning first though

 

[kcw12]

What size is the starter bolts, are they metric?

 

[bradrob82]

http://www.oilburners.net/articles/starter.html Look there for info there is the whole write up about it, it helped me out. Good luck!!!

 

[h2odrx]

pm Darrin he might have what you need? or check his thread in the marketplace!

 

[wwwabbit]

When I rebuilt my starter, It was about $20 for the brushes on a new spring plate and the bearings. We ended up throwing it in a lathe to clean it up just 'cause we had on there, but a bit of cleaning on it would have been enough for mine.

 

[kcw12]

Ill probably get a remaned starter, with a lifetime warrenty