94_FlareSide_5.Slow

Good afternoon everyone,


I have a '94 5.0 that has a parasitic battery drain. If parked for more than one night, it will not have enough juice to crank, let alone turn on overhead light when door is opened.


My neighbor with a multimeter came over and all the circuits for all the fuses checked out ok. The alternator charges properly, the battery is only a lil over a year old and has been checked by AutoZone multiple times to verify that it is still good. I replaced the terminal clamps a few months ago and they are clean.


I know the battery cables themselves are original and corroded and I am starting to think that they are the problem, so my dad and I are going to replace them this weekend.

Has anyone done this before on a similar truck? It looks like it is going to be a real PITA.


Thanks in advance!

Red96

Had a similar thing happen. Come to find,the little stud that connects when u close the door wasnt working properly. It was gettn stuck,therefore the inside lights were staying on....long shot but thats what happened to me

jeffreymall

try just buying new terminal connectors for the wires, there cheap and easy to do and usually fix the problem

midnightduddie96

i had to replace my negative battery cable, so what we did was get some 4 gauge copper wire, measure the length we would need, put some new ring terminals on it and use a large fender washer to ground it. we basically had to build our own. I found it dumb that I couldn't find anywhere to buy a negative battery cable for our trucks

94_FlareSide_5.Slow

So I ended up finding the positive cable, STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS A504TA, on rockauto.com for $25.79 & the ground cable, Motorcraft WC8980, on amazon for $38.78.

Installation was pretty straight forward but I would reccomend a partner for the double male bolt that holds the ground on the block

seschenburg

I replaced both positive and negative in mine. Not a difficult project. Went to O-Reilly's and had them cut the cables to length. I bought 2/0 gauge to ensure that the starter will never starve for power, but I think 4/0 is standard. Went to the welding supply store and got some copper lugs. I already had a lug setter, but you can use a rounded punch to do the same thing. Put the lugs on the ends of the cables.

For the mid-line ground connector I trimmed the insulation to clear about an inch of the copper. I then flattened a short piece of copper pipe and wrapped it around a metal rod to get the shape. Put that on the exposed ground cable with several solder pieces inside. Heated the whole thing until the solder melted. Then drilled the mounting hole.

I also replaced the starter solenoid wire with a new one since I was down there already. 12ga, I think.

I then covered all the exposed ends with heat shrink, but you could use electrical tape, of course.

Cleaned all the connector points until they were shiny.

I also replaced the crappy battery terminals with some of those military-grade models.

No more battery cable problems.