Battery issues

After loosing the starting battery (2 months ago) to thermal run away, I’ve decided to completely removing the starting battery from the starting/charging circuit. This will require rewiring the heavy duty power wires to the engine, removing some wires and installing a short jumper from the back of the alternator to the starter.

An easy 10 minute job if I had a 12 inch, # 4 gauge jumper with the correct ends on it and everything was easy to get to. In the end it took about 4+ hours to do this simple little bit of work. 

 First off, a pre-made # 4 gauge, 12 inch cable at West Marine runs about $16 so, instead of paying the people at WM I headed down to the hardware store and bought the items that I needed for less then $5.

It’s a 8 mile bike ride down to the store and back but it was a nice day and Anna insisted on lunch at Pizza Hut with the money that I saved so, it wasn’t too bad. Once back at the boat, I fabricated the cable by first trimming the ends, dipping them into paste and inserting them into the lugs. I dimpled the ends by pounding a punch into the lugs (I didn’t have my crimper with me).

both front and back were dimpled until very tight

ends installed

At this point, Edie came over and tried to help but the next step requires fire so I said no.



Then, it was into my "garage" for more tools.

the "garage" is 4 shelf's that hold tools and parts and also serve as steps into the engine area.

plumbing on left and electrical on right

To ensure a good connection I got out the torch and soldered the ends on.

MAPP gas burns hotter than propane

 

After that, the ends received a sleeve of shrink wrap around them and wah-la, you have a cable that is ready to install, just like WM’s at 1/3 of the price.

Tomorrow, it’s the installation process.