Battery cable questions

-
myasylum

myasylum

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2008
Messages
1,740
Reaction score
4
Location
Las Vegas, NV
I have a mini starter, and I need new cables. The thing is that I noticed that the stock 1973 cables have different ends that attach to the mini starter. How to you go about that? Can you just cut the plastic piece in the middle, and drill out one hole to get it to fit the starter? Is that safe?
That is the only way I can get the stock cable to work.
Also, with headers... The cable now seems to be a bit short. I saw E-body cables were 43" long. would that be the best thing to do?

Also I have read that people make there own. I saw that Home Depot has 1 gauge wire, but where would I buy the ends? It seems as though the end that goes onto the starter is pretty small. It would seem that it would be difficult to get a 1 gauge wire into a end that is that small.

Does anyone have experience with this? Or happen to know the length of wire I should be looking for?

Thank a lot!
 
I was at NAPA, they are awful! Here they are at least. We have a Car Quest as well. They are even worse.

Another Idea, I thought of as well... Since the starter is from a 95' Dakota, do you think that the cables from a 95' Dakota would work as well?

I also found a 43" positive cable at Wal-mart as well that made me wonder for a second. All it is is the one positive wire though, and the end looked rather flat and large for a mini starter.
 
myasylum said:
I was at NAPA, they are awful! Here they are at least. We have a Car Quest as well. They are even worse.

Another Idea, I thought of as well... Since the starter is from a 95' Dakota, do you think that the cables from a 95' Dakota would work as well?
Click to expand...

you would have to measure the one from the Dakota... that would at least get you the right end on the battery.... You could also try a repair shop, someone who does industrial stuff like electric forklifts or even some of the farm equipment... whatever is in your area should have plenty of ends and cables. I used to run a golf car business and bought cable in rolls and made all my own wires and battery cables.

and, if the eyelet on the starter end is too small, you should be able to drill it out a little, as long as there is enough metal around the outside left once you are done.
 
Well... The junk yard here says that they scrap all the cables for copper. So that doesn't work.

Napa did have cable to make my own. 2 gauge for $3.80 a foot! I could not find a decent size connector to the starter. They were all to big.

So I ended up buying a premade 55" 4 gauge for $13.00. Still, the end is to big for the mini starter... So... I'll still have to see what I can do.

I thought this would be easy.
 
myasylum said:
Well... The junk yard here says that they scrap all the cables for copper. So that doesn't work.

Napa did have cable to make my own. 2 gauge for $3.80 a foot! I could not find a decent size connector to the starter. They were all to big.

So I ended up buying a premade 55" 4 gauge for $13.00. Still, the end is to big for the mini starter... So... I'll still have to see what I can do.

I thought this would be easy.
Click to expand...


If there's enough thread length on the starter stud for you to use a couple washers than squeeze the new cable end between the washers.
 
if the eyelet on the end is too large, you can also cut a slot in the end and pinch the ends back together in a vise... that is not perfect but, it works in a pinch...
 
Are you sure you are putting the cable on the right post? I have never seen an issue like this on here and I didn't have this problem with my starter.
 
myasylum said:
I have a mini starter, and I need new cables. The thing is that I noticed that the stock 1973 cables have different ends that attach to the mini starter. How to you go about that? Can you just cut the plastic piece in the middle, and drill out one hole to get it to fit the starter? Is that safe?
Click to expand...

Yep, that's fine. No problem doing that.

Also see here.

The Dakota cables will not work, which is fine, because they're not needed.
 
Just like Dan said: split the plastic and enlarge the hole. Works!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top