New battery worked after install, dead the next day
Re: New battery worked after install, dead the next day
I hooked up one end of neg jumper cable to the neg terminal and the other neg jumper cable to shiny part of the body, started it and just a click and a black instrument cluster. Same as before.
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Re: New battery worked after install, dead the next day
I thought when jump starting it's:
red on dead battery
red on good battery
black on good battery
black on dead battery
You are saying I should put the neg on dead battery and then neg on good battery?
Or put the neg on the dead and the other neg cable on the body of the dead battery car?
red on dead battery
red on good battery
black on good battery
black on dead battery
You are saying I should put the neg on dead battery and then neg on good battery?
Or put the neg on the dead and the other neg cable on the body of the dead battery car?
Just using one of the jumper cables to take the place of a cruddy looking ground wire.
Baking soda neutralizes acid, but cannot restore good contact by itself nor scrape oxidation to expose clean metal. Copper wire oxidizes green.
Re: New battery worked after install, dead the next day
Oh I see what you mean now we are using the jumper cable to represent the negative terminal cable, that's a neat idea. I am at work and will try this with the negative cable off and replace it with the cable when I get home.
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Joined: Dec 2011
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From: Midwest. Aiming about mid-chest
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Re: New battery worked after install, dead the next day
Don't remove the old cable.
Clamp the jumper cable as an additional electrical path.
Clamp the jumper cable as an additional electrical path.
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Joined: Dec 2011
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From: Midwest. Aiming about mid-chest
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Re: New battery worked after install, dead the next day
and to the body of the car.
Clean shiny metal on the engine
Also, if the bad connection is between the battery post and terminal clamp, sticking a jumper cable on the outside of the clamp won't do much.
You could try with the battery cable removed as well.
You could repeat this same thing with the + side of the battery but there probably isn't enough room to clamp a jumper on the cable at the starter.....you COULD connect to one of the bolted connections on the fusebox though.
I'm still thinking I could use a test light and have this "electrically dead" problem figured out in less than 5 minutes.
Bad connection. Poor electrical contact. Might be good enough to carry 10-15 amps to light the dash and headlights, but not good enough to support 150 amps of starter load. Either keep jiggling or take it apart and clean it up until there is bright shiny clean metal on metal contact at all points. If you have replacement cable ends, you might have bad contact where the wires are attached.No, you've only got a good enough connection to run the lights. It still opens under higher load.A voltage drop check can find the bad connection. I could probably use a test light bulb to find it if I had the car in front of me.
Re: New battery worked after install, dead the next day
Not the body.
Clean shiny metal on the engine
Also, if the bad connection is between the battery post and terminal clamp, sticking a jumper cable on the outside of the clamp won't do much.
You could try with the battery cable removed as well.
You could repeat this same thing with the + side of the battery but there probably isn't enough room to clamp a jumper on the cable at the starter.....you COULD connect to one of the bolted connections on the fusebox though.
I'm still thinking I could use a test light and have this "electrically dead" problem figured out in less than 5 minutes.
Clean shiny metal on the engine
Also, if the bad connection is between the battery post and terminal clamp, sticking a jumper cable on the outside of the clamp won't do much.
You could try with the battery cable removed as well.
You could repeat this same thing with the + side of the battery but there probably isn't enough room to clamp a jumper on the cable at the starter.....you COULD connect to one of the bolted connections on the fusebox though.
I'm still thinking I could use a test light and have this "electrically dead" problem figured out in less than 5 minutes.
IT STARTED!!!!
I took one negative cable end to the negative post and the other negative cable end to the shiny part of the exhaust manifold. Thank you so much!!
Does this mean I need to replace the whole negative terminal cable or might there be more gremlins?
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Joined: Dec 2011
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From: Midwest. Aiming about mid-chest
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Re: New battery worked after install, dead the next day
Does this mean I need to replace the whole negative terminal cable
My usual guess is where the oxidized copper is squashed in the cheap clamp at the battery post.
or might there be more gremlins?
Re: New battery worked after install, dead the next day
Re: New battery worked after install, dead the next day
Thank you!!
So far so good. I installed the new cable and the car started right up. In fact the multimeter displayed better results, 12.7v when off and 14.38v when on. So everything seems good. Thanks once more, I ended up buying one of those electric test tools for future use too.



