7 replies to this topic

[M850GLT]

Hi,
I am new to this board as I am 18 and just got my first car. It is a 96 GLT 850. Nice shape with 125K miles on it. I am not very experienced with cars yet but I hope to be soon. My problem is that I the battery kept going dead. I tried to jump it and it would start b ut wouldnt keep running when I removed the jumper cables. I bought a new battery. I thought that would solve my problem but it just created a bigger one. When I took the battery cable off the positive side. The bundle of red wires attached to the clamp by a big crimped terminal, snapped. The part with the hole stayed on the battery cable and the bundle of wires is just there with no means of attaching it back to the battery. Any ideas as to how to fix this. Am I in trouble??? It looks like a major job to replace the harness.

thanks,
Mike

[WhiteT5]

Just need a new terminal, which can be bought at many auto parts stores. Shouldn't be too much work.

[M850GLT]

Just need a new terminal, which can be bought at many auto parts stores. Shouldn't be too much work.

Thanks for the reply. It is not the terminal clamp. It is a bundle of wires that attaches also to the terminal clamp.

[maiku]

alternator?

[ziddey]

yeah it sounds like you have two problems. First, you need to get a new terminal. You should be able to strip off some of the red wire plastic covering and take the new terminal and fit it over and then use pliers or something to crimp it back in. The wire will probably be a little bit shorter but that shouldn't be an issue. It shouldn't be a major job although it's a bit annoying.

As far as what you said about when you detached the boosting battery after a successful jump and it goes dead again, that sounds like a faulty alternator, which is what generates electricity while the car is running. A way to check for this is to (once you get a new battery, or get the battery tested and it turns out good and just get it charged up again) is to have the car running and check the voltage. It should be about 14V while running since the alternator has to give a little higher voltage than the battery's 12V in order to charge it. Do note though that if it's connected to another car and that car is running then you'll read 14V because of the other car's alternator.


You should be able to completely have no battery connected while the car is running although I've heard that it's hard on the electrical system

[850-Turbo]

You should be able to completely have no battery connected while the car is running although I've heard that it's hard on the electrical system

I would suggest not to remove the battery while the engine is running. Although I've done it without damage in the past (when electrical system was much, much simpler), the alternator can put out something like 70V(if I remember correctly) without the load. The load being the battery.

[James A Sousa]

DO NOT disconnect the battery with the engine running, that doesn't have any real troubleshooting use anyway.

Bad connections at the battery can cause ALL your problems. A bad connection can cause your charging system to work poorly, a bad alternator cannot break your wires!

Just TRY to break the wires off a new battery cable, you can't do it. Often corrosion creeps up inside the insulation at your battery terminals and weakens the wires.

Just get the cable fixed and give it a try.

To fix the problem, the wires need to be clipped off, stripped back the proper amount and cleaned. The socket that they go into needs to be empty and clean. Then the wires need to be soldered in. If the wires are in a crimped connector at the battery (and I think that the 850 is) then a new battery terminal may be needed.

If you cannot fix the cable yourself, any GOOD mechanic can do the job.

Time for you to get a Haynes manual, there is a good section on maintenance, and quite a bit of good repair advice for the money.

Edited by James A Sousa, 28 March 2006 - 02:05 AM.