Yep. If they are old you will never know untill you cut them open.
That is the problem, they look great from the outside but they rot underneath the plastic.
You can try cleaning the contacts on both sides.
You have to pull the bolt out of the plastic end of the cable in order to get at that ring connector.
Just be aware that those factory bolts do not thread very far into the battery and if you overtighten them you will strip the threads out of the battery.
If that happens you can repair it by using the bolt method.
Basically, ECM uses electrical signals from each of the sensors and each sensor needs to be in a specific voltage range.
Every intermittant contact during that process looks like an error to the ecm.
And if those cables are rotted enough,
which they probably are.
You get wierd intermittant hot start problems and dead as a doorknob cold start problems.
The battery cables may not be your only problem.
But you can not diagnose an electrical problem on a side post chevy untill you have rock solid beyond a doubt battery connections.
Go to the boneyard, pick any old random side post chevy.
Cut the cables open and about 6 or 8 inches into the wire insulation.
You will find broken stranded wire that has corrosion jacked and split apart from the deadly green fuzz.
The intermittant contact causes the odd performance issues.
Having half of that stranded wire broken makes the remaing wire get really hot.
When wire gets hot, resistance spikes.
And that one of reasons why your hot starter doesnt work untill you wait for an hour or two.
The GMT 400 platform has a bad rep for wiring problems.
Which is why you should buy them while you still can
Before they become the next square body that you cant afford.
Its the friggen battery cables and the grounds!
Dont forget, the whole gmt400 platform was a massive change when it was first introduced and it caused huge production problems at GM.
Very much a "sea change" in knowledge that only lasted a few years before the obd2 regulations took effect.
A lot of GM line techs retired and a lot of GM dealor techs retired .
It was a big ******* deal back then.
The first time I saw the new GMT400 trucks was at the Detroit auto show.
At that time it was so far beyond me.
The 3rd back ex wife and her kids and I was daily driving a 1970 crew cab F250 that I had rolled over about 5 times and you couldnt open the passenger side doors.
We broke up because she was mad about me bringing home wet towels that I was trying to stuff into the door gaps so I didnt have to wear friggen scuba diving equipment while I was driving to work.
I didnt "roll" the the truck.
I hit a big damn bull elk.
And that bull also hit me.
With no insurance!
They look like a big ******* cow with horns and they just wander out on the highway.
Kinda like tweakers and meth heads and failed high school heroes.
The hardest lesson in life and the very thing that you need to get a ******* grip on is that you own your kindness and it is a gift to them.
That kindness is your soul and who you are and nobody ******* nobody owns that but you.
I have objects and I have money and I have houses and art and all of those things
That has always been our retirement plan.
Now I have to change that pretty quick.
I have a dark spot in my right eye that I cant see through and it is getting a bit worse every day.
I kept swatting at my head thinking it was a bug
Friggen midle of winter and I thought I had bugs in my eyes.
I just swatted my eye while I was typing this.
I just hit 58 a few days ago and mom will be 80 in few days and my wife will be 50 in a few days .
And none of us have even had a runny nose or anything since the start of this.
Because I am a hard man when I need to be.
That is my job in life.
I look at everything and stay awake at night thinking about the path forward and what is best for all of us every day.
And sometimes, at first , they all hated me for my decissions.
But that is okay.
I am the oldest son and we do consult with each other but eventually it is my decission to make and family tradition is to abide by my decission.
And nobody has gotten sick yet.
Not even a ******* sniffle.
And after all of that bullshit that is when I finally convinced my brother to fix his damn battery cables.
