Slow Cranking Hot Fixed w/ New Cables
06-21-2013, 03:08 PM
#1
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Slow Cranking Hot Fixed w/ New Cables
1984 w/ 4+3 manual - Had the car almost 4 years, starter was bad so I put in a rebuilt when I first got the car. Cranked good cold but cranked slow when hot from day 1. Had the battery tested, it was fairly new and tested good. Cable ends at battery were decent. Put a heat shield on starter since the original was missing - still cranked slow hot. The LCD battery gauge in the car always indicated about 1 volt less than my voltmeter did when put right on the battery terminals.
After replacing the cables and cleaning up the negative chassis ground right near the batteryand replacing the battery heat insulation wrapper it's a different world. Seriously. The car cranks like crazy hot or cold. And the LCD gauge agrees with my meter now too. The old cables did not really look too bad either - some blackened strands but not really ugly. Maybe the copper changes with the heat or something. I know that can happen to power wiring in buildings.
The battery hold down bolt was broken off and the pastic hold down block missing so I ordered them and battery and positive & negative cables over the winter.
The battery started to not hold a charge for 2 weeks (I park in an undergound private lot where there's no power for a tender) so I
decided to get it all over with. After reading all the pros and cons of Optima or other glass type batteries I bought the middle of the road Wall Mart regular battery made by Johnson Controls with 700 CCA for $86. It has a 3 year full replacement so that should get me 4 years or so for a fairly low cost.
One of the long battery tray bolts was rusted like a pirate ship and the tray was cracked and expanded open where the bolt went through because the steel sleeve had rusted away, expanding as it did. The frame underneath was rusty also. I made a new bolt sleeve from stainless tubing I had, then epoxied it into the batery tray with Locktite two part plastic epoxy which I ran out of. I epoxied the other side of the sleeve the next night with fiberglass surfboard resin - ok, living dangerously, but nothing smoked. I wire brushed the frame then painted it first with Rustoleum rust reformer then Krylon high temp barbeque paint which has a semi gloss close to original and is inexpensive.
The battery cable replacement was tough- took me all day flat on my back. I bought Standard Ignition replacement cables through Ecklers. The length is good but the ends for the starter and ground bolt are different than stock.
The positive wasn't bad end-wise, I had to bend the end some and re-use the old corrugated plastic cover where the cable goes across the bell housing but I was able to follow the original route. I used the old cable as a drag, stripping the copper about 6 inches then cutting 2/3rds of the strands away and using the last 1/3rd to hook into the new cable's end hole. I taped that up good so the 2nd cable was in the shadow of the first and pulled it through, over the bell housing. There is a cable support below the wiper motor that you can remove with one nut and another cable support near the bell housing above the starter.
The negative cable's new end just would not work with the original routing where the cable comes down behind the block. Without the special flat and angled end that the original cable had I could not get the cable end to lie flat enough against the block where the ground bolt is to be able to bolt it down because of the block's casting shape. I had to re-route the negative cable so it went right down under near the brake lines. I tie-wrapped it to a brake line to keep it away from the exhaust. The negative cable's hole was too small for the ground bolt, too, I had to open it up quite a bit. The ground bolt hit the floor pan on the way out, I had to pry the floor pan a bit to get the bolt out of the hole. Since the bolt was very long and only holds the cable end, I cut about 1/4" off of it to get it back in easier. I don't know if original cables are available from GM any more but if I was to do it again I would check that out and try to at least get the negative one.
After replacing the cables and cleaning up the negative chassis ground right near the batteryand replacing the battery heat insulation wrapper it's a different world. Seriously. The car cranks like crazy hot or cold. And the LCD gauge agrees with my meter now too. The old cables did not really look too bad either - some blackened strands but not really ugly. Maybe the copper changes with the heat or something. I know that can happen to power wiring in buildings.
The battery hold down bolt was broken off and the pastic hold down block missing so I ordered them and battery and positive & negative cables over the winter.
The battery started to not hold a charge for 2 weeks (I park in an undergound private lot where there's no power for a tender) so I
decided to get it all over with. After reading all the pros and cons of Optima or other glass type batteries I bought the middle of the road Wall Mart regular battery made by Johnson Controls with 700 CCA for $86. It has a 3 year full replacement so that should get me 4 years or so for a fairly low cost.
One of the long battery tray bolts was rusted like a pirate ship and the tray was cracked and expanded open where the bolt went through because the steel sleeve had rusted away, expanding as it did. The frame underneath was rusty also. I made a new bolt sleeve from stainless tubing I had, then epoxied it into the batery tray with Locktite two part plastic epoxy which I ran out of. I epoxied the other side of the sleeve the next night with fiberglass surfboard resin - ok, living dangerously, but nothing smoked. I wire brushed the frame then painted it first with Rustoleum rust reformer then Krylon high temp barbeque paint which has a semi gloss close to original and is inexpensive.
The battery cable replacement was tough- took me all day flat on my back. I bought Standard Ignition replacement cables through Ecklers. The length is good but the ends for the starter and ground bolt are different than stock.
The positive wasn't bad end-wise, I had to bend the end some and re-use the old corrugated plastic cover where the cable goes across the bell housing but I was able to follow the original route. I used the old cable as a drag, stripping the copper about 6 inches then cutting 2/3rds of the strands away and using the last 1/3rd to hook into the new cable's end hole. I taped that up good so the 2nd cable was in the shadow of the first and pulled it through, over the bell housing. There is a cable support below the wiper motor that you can remove with one nut and another cable support near the bell housing above the starter.
The negative cable's new end just would not work with the original routing where the cable comes down behind the block. Without the special flat and angled end that the original cable had I could not get the cable end to lie flat enough against the block where the ground bolt is to be able to bolt it down because of the block's casting shape. I had to re-route the negative cable so it went right down under near the brake lines. I tie-wrapped it to a brake line to keep it away from the exhaust. The negative cable's hole was too small for the ground bolt, too, I had to open it up quite a bit. The ground bolt hit the floor pan on the way out, I had to pry the floor pan a bit to get the bolt out of the hole. Since the bolt was very long and only holds the cable end, I cut about 1/4" off of it to get it back in easier. I don't know if original cables are available from GM any more but if I was to do it again I would check that out and try to at least get the negative one.
Last edited by ProjectC4; 06-21-2013 at 03:11 PM.
