Need help fixing the connection to my battery. The previous owner of my jeep cut the original connectors off near the battery. The new connectors just have the leads clamped in them and I have to keep tightening the ends of the leads. They also extended the leads using what appears to be a crimped wire connector. I checked the dealer for a oem positive lead and connector but they said they couldn't find any. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I need a easy but good fix because I am going to be selling the jeep real soon

 

You should be able to go to a decent auto parts store and get a battery cable with the clamps already built in. It's just a matter of figuring out what length you need and matching it as close as possible with something off the shelf. Slightly longey would be ok but I would not go any shorter as it could cause routing problems. Also, different cables can have different fittings as each end so make sure you get the right ones.

 

I bought just the terminals a few days ago from Advance, but they also had ones with the terminal ends and cable already attached. Something like $7?

 

Does anyone know how long of a positive lead I need from the starter to the battery?

 

Take a piece of string and run it along your existing cable ... then take out the string and measure it. That will give you exact length.

 

Okay thanks everyone

 

I hope you find the right Buyer for the XJ and all goes well. I like the fact that you want to do a "good fix" on the battery cable. Try to make all of your fixes in life, good fixes, since to do otherwise is to just get by.

Webb

 

 

i really like this, do you mind if i use it?

 

Nothing original there by me ! It's just old fashioned "doing unto others as I would have them do unto me."

Best wishes,

Webb

 

"When fixing something, always assume the next poor schmuck to work on it will be you."

It's a guiding rule for all of my work, and it's probably why I still have most of my hair!

 

The lead should be about 38 inches or so. I'll see if I have my oem wire hanging around and take a measurement tomorrow.

 

Then why is mine falling out

 

Okay thanks let me know

 

Dunno - men in my family (both sides) tend to go to their doom with a full head of hair - even the ones that live to a ripe old age!

My granddad looked like Sean Connery in Hunt for Red October right up to the end - drove Nanna nuts trying to keep women off of him! We may get a little pattern baldness (I started getting "power-Vees" at thirty, but it stopped a couple of years later,) but that's about it.

And, since I always make that one assumption, I don't end up ripping my hair out by the double handful beating my brains out trying to figure out why I did something some dumbass way. (Why the factory does things the way they do is usually no mystery to me, and gets corrected in short order. What is useful for mass-production is useless for service, what is useful for service is useless for mass-production. Ergo, lots of changes on my rig...)