Battery DEAD, DEAD !!!

[johnckhall]

I’ve arrived at my own nirvana!

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Quick battery disconnect and everything stays tight.

I'm have a set up much like that on my positive terminal. I'm running a Retrosound inline amp and I have the amp wire connected to the + terminal like yours. That terminal was good and tight. It was the - terminal that still has the factory bolt that had backed out. Looks like I need to change that terminal bolt too. Or just keep a wrench in my truck as @HotWheelsBurban suggested.

 

[Caman96]

That quick disconnect is the best. Removing that bolt was the only reason I ever considered a top post. Now, just flip the bar.

 

[thinger2]

3/8-16 x 1.5-ish long bolt, flange nut, and 3/8 flat washer.

Thread flange nut onto bolt as far as it will go, flange facing away from the bolt head.

Remove too-damn-short OEM battery bolt from cable assembly. Wire-brush BOTH SIDES of the battery cable terminal, and the lead battery terminal also. Battery terminal must look "bright silver" not black, and not fuzzy green. Force washer into rubber insulator around cable end on the bolt/nut side of the terminal (not the battery side.) Newer vehicles have removable hard-plastic insulators, earlier ones use a permanently-attached rubber insulator. (The washer is not important except to space the nut farther out for tool access. If you can cram TWO washers in there, even better.)

Thread aftermarket bolt (with nut) through the washer, through the cable end, and into battery finger-tight. The nut should still be loose.

Hold the bolt, tighten nut to clamp cable end to battery. Since bolt is fully-threaded into the battery, it'll hold slightly more torque than the OEM battery bolt. This is essentially the same concept as head studs or main studs in an engine.

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Bolt sticking out kinda ruins the "sealed" part of the sealed-terminal battery system, but allows easy access for clamping jumper cables onto battery terminals for jump-starting other vehicles.

The "official" torque for the OEM side-terminal battery bolts is 11 ft/lbs. Even I, who is decidedly torque-wrench-crazy, do not torque the battery cable bolts. Maybe I should start...

Very similiar to the process I used. Except I took a pair of side cutters and clipped all of the pastic off of the end and the wire insulation in order to expose the ring terminal and the wire leeding to it
The wire underneath that plastic cover was green and fuzzy.
Mixed up a paste of baking soda and water and stuck the wire ends into it for a few hours.
Rinsed that off and stuck the ends in a bucket of vinegar overnight.
Rinsed that off.
Then I did the bolt trick and coated them with some kind of battery goo.
It might have been No-ox or something similiar I just dont remember.
That was at least 3 years ago maybe 4.
I bought new cables fully intending to replace them but I cant find them. My shop has a garage poltergiest who reorganizes my **** and changes out my cds whenever Im gone.
I cant find my parts, i cant find my tools
All while Stevie Nicks is in the background singing Blah blah bla, blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah bla bla.
If you want to hang out and drink some wine and smoke a joint or two I am all in.
I will do that everyday.
But you need to know that your car is never ever ever going to hit the road again.
If you move my tools while I am high and had some wine I will look around for about a minute before I give up and decide to go make homemade pizza or some other kitchen nuking thing.
Either way, a mess will be made.
There will be a disaster.
The only question is about where that disaster will happen.
In the garage or in the house.

 

[thinger2]

Forgot to mention.
Get a volt meter and keep it in the truck.
A cheap crappy harbor frieght is good enough for roadside diagnostics.
I have a few Fluke meters but I take a cheap 20 buck greenlee on the road.
The only thing worse than a broken window is a broken window and a stolen 600 dollar volt meter.
You dont need that on the road.
Get a meter with detachable leeds.
The greenlee has fixed leeds and I had to solder longer wires to it in order to reach far enough.
Not ideal in any way.
Im pretty sure that the soldered connection makes it unreliable for anything other than finding battery voltage.
But, on the side of the road in the middle of the night when the snow plow comes by and blasts you headfirst into the engine bay and you are hanging upside down with the carb stud stabbed into your ankle and nobody gives a **** and just drives on by.
On an old car of any age or any type it is always always always every friggen time the battery cables.
And the grounds.
Dont even waste your time chasing electrical gremlins on any gm sidepost system untill you have repaired the battery cables and all of the grounds.
Many of these trucks ended up in the boneyard because of GMs transition from paper to microfilm.
My 1994 has about 380 tsbs "Technical Service Bullitens"
Most TSBs are inter company warranty bullshit.
But some of them are factory defects
Issues that didnt quallify for a recall becuase of the law at that time.
I hope you guys will appreciate the amount of effort Ive put into this to explain why Russell Wilson is gone feeble and Geno Smith is not our long term QB.
Go Hawks!

 

[Pollo Dustino]

Has anyone converted over to a Group 65 battery? I have the top-post adapters. The battery tray looks too small for a Group 65 though. I was thinking of grinding out the lip or taking a tray out of a different vehicle and adapting it to the GMC's bolt pattern. 1998 K2500.

 

[df2x4]

Has anyone converted over to a Group 65 battery? I have the top-post adapters. The battery tray looks too small for a Group 65 though. I was thinking of grinding out the lip or taking a tray out of a different vehicle and adapting it to the GMC's bolt pattern. 1998 K2500.

Group 34 would be a lot easier if you want top terminals. Group 34 is the same exact size as the stock group 78 with top terminals instead of side.

Or get a 34/78 and have both sets of terminals.

 

[Pollo Dustino]

Group 34 would be a lot easier if you want top terminals. Group 34 is the same exact size as the stock group 78 with top terminals instead of side.

Or get a 34/78 and have both sets of terminals.

I was considering going with the 65 because of the larger size and potentially higher CCA. In my experience the larger batteries seem to last longer and perform better than the smaller ones.

 

[smdk2500]

Has anyone converted over to a Group 65 battery? I have the top-post adapters. The battery tray looks too small for a Group 65 though. I was thinking of grinding out the lip or taking a tray out of a different vehicle and adapting it to the GMC's bolt pattern. 1998 K2500.

I put a group 31 in my 95 gasser. I had to modify the tray as it is a bit bigger then a 65. It was a very tight fit length wise and height wise. If I remember right a 65 is taller then a 31. Might look into that before buying a 65

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Group 34 would be a lot easier if you want top terminals. Group 34 is the same exact size as the stock group 78 with top terminals instead of side.

Or get a 34/78 and have both sets of terminals.

One caveat about the 34/78 battery: they're not near as common, and don't sell as often. So your chances are a lot higher of getting an old battery that has been redated. And if it's been sitting long enough, it may be fixing to have a dead cell....
BTDT. Sams club is bad about doing this redated stuff....

 

[scott2093]

Maybe ok from here?

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