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Old 08-24-2016, 12:49 PM   #1
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Battery post weirdness

Pulled into a rest stop during a 400mi drive outside of Burney and when I went to continue on my way van wouldn't turn over. Electrical. Hmm. Put multimeter on battery; seemed good. Checked lights, OK, etc. Then tried again; didn't even get solenoid click. Hmm again. Checked TERMINALS of positive wire, and now got 2.5v.

So out with tools and some wire brushing and I'm good.

I've got a terminal extender that essentially attaches per normal with a female to male post so I can sorta move the cables since I had to wire up there for a winch, and the thing was very secure on the battery post itself; no movement. I've had this occur before (actually just down the road a piece in Willows) and if there's any commonality it's some typical CA crappy infrastructure washboardy PAVED roads and a LONG drive. But no visible corrosion or anything; Odyssey battery about 2.5 years old. And the previous problem was with a different battery.

Any good solutions? short of gold foil around the post for a better connection? not tight enough? something like a locktite dielectric solution? It's annoying.

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Old 08-24-2016, 03:18 PM   #2
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I always use electrical compound. But I've had a few similar issues even when my mechanic used some sort of purple grease on the terminals. I still got corrosion with no visible sign. When I've used Alnox compound I've never had a problem...yet anyway. Vibration is also a big factor so if the wires can flex outside the terminal that can be a problem.
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Old 08-24-2016, 05:04 PM   #3
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Yeah, they flex. Ford makes 'em so damn short it's hard to correct. I'll try some alnox, and maybe just add cleaning and tightening terminals to the list of stuff to do before a trip. I would have thought any lube would just make it worse.
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Old 08-24-2016, 05:27 PM   #4
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Dielctric compound is the opposite of what you want. You want a conductive compound. I use silver anti-seize paste.
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Old 08-25-2016, 07:11 AM   #5
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Grandpa always used Vaseline, and it's always worked for me!

Pro tip: Don't use the shop Vaseline for anything else.

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