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Old 06-16-2019, 11:08 AM   #1
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E350 7.3 PSD Battery Terminal Failure Fix

Hi all,

I’ve always been pretty meticulous about cleaning my battery terminals and applying vasoline liberally to avoid corrosion. For those who own a 7.3 PSD with dual batteries -you now the cost of two batteries and the struggles with replacing the midship battery on your back with limited clearance. Anyway, I ran into a situation that set me back for quite a while. I was having chronic starting issues. All my terminals were clean, tight and batteries fully charged. After failing to find anything useful on my internet searches, I stumbled across pictures of what the terminal should look like. I found the problem to be the cast in stud for the midship battery terminal had been over tightened and therefore was stripped. Much of the stud thread protruded well past the brass jumping port and only finger tight causing a break in the connection. I found a whole new wiring harness (OEM) for close to $200. I knew there must be a way to fix it for less cost and labor...the wheels in my head were turning. I wanted to avoid the standard fix of cutting the wires and flat pinching them onto a universal terminal (the first picture). So here’s my fix, I continued to overtighten the stud until it eventually came out. I then drilled through the terminal and grinded a flat spot on the back to accommodate a bolt. I found that Stainless Steel was the most similar metal to avoid electrolysis and potential corrosion. I’ve included some photos -I hope this will help someone with a the same situation. Thanks 😁
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Old 06-17-2019, 12:32 PM   #2
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The terminals on the under frame battery are another possible source of voltage drop. Here's what I found when I dropped the batterys on my 2002, and the new ends I got at Napa per recommendations from the forum. The others were worse and were thrown out prior to the photo.
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Old 06-17-2019, 09:04 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisbaffico View Post
Hi all,



I’ve always been pretty meticulous about cleaning my battery terminals and applying vasoline liberally to avoid corrosion. For those who own a 7.3 PSD with dual batteries -you now the cost of two batteries and the struggles with replacing the midship battery on your back with limited clearance. Anyway, I ran into a situation that set me back for quite a while. I was having chronic starting issues. All my terminals were clean, tight and batteries fully charged. After failing to find anything useful on my internet searches, I stumbled across pictures of what the terminal should look like. I found the problem to be the cast in stud for the midship battery terminal had been over tightened and therefore was stripped. Much of the stud thread protruded well past the brass jumping port and only finger tight causing a break in the connection. I found a whole new wiring harness (OEM) for close to $200. I knew there must be a way to fix it for less cost and labor...the wheels in my head were turning. I wanted to avoid the standard fix of cutting the wires and flat pinching them onto a universal terminal (the first picture). So here’s my fix, I continued to overtighten the stud until it eventually came out. I then drilled through the terminal and grinded a flat spot on the back to accommodate a bolt. I found that Stainless Steel was the most similar metal to avoid electrolysis and potential corrosion. I’ve included some photos -I hope this will help someone with a the same situation. Thanks [emoji16]


I keep tightening mine so I might have the same issue. What size and thread did you get.
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Old 06-18-2019, 11:07 AM   #4
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If anyone does decide to replace their battery cables, I had a great experience with Custom Battery Cables. I know they have ones for diesel vans, not sure about gassers.

https://www.custombatterycables.com/


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Old 06-18-2019, 05:03 PM   #5
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What I ended up doing on my 7.3 with the battery in the engine compartment i moved it to the frame rail right next to the other. I made a bracket and used 2 jump starting post to reconnect everything and ran 1/0 cable from batteries back to jump post.

With the space from the battery free, it made a perfect spot to place a compressor.
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Old 06-18-2019, 06:23 PM   #6
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What I ended up doing on my 7.3 with the battery in the engine compartment i moved it to the frame rail right next to the other. I made a bracket and used 2 jump starting post to reconnect everything and ran 1/0 cable from batteries back to jump post.

With the space from the battery free, it made a perfect spot to place a compressor.
Great idea!
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Old 06-18-2019, 08:21 PM   #7
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I don’t recall the thread size -I brought in the brass nut and matched it with a SS bolt.
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Old 06-18-2019, 10:53 PM   #8
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Quote:
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I don’t recall the thread size -I brought in the brass nut and matched it with a SS bolt.
Stainless is actually a bit of a poor conductor, but as long as there is no SS (like a washer or something) between the actual battery terminal and the cable terminals, it's fine. You just don't want to use it as a conductor unless you don't mind some voltage drop.
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Old 06-19-2019, 09:53 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BroncoHauler View Post
If anyone does decide to replace their battery cables, I had a great experience with Custom Battery Cables. I know they have ones for diesel vans, not sure about gassers.

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According to their spokes model they can make 'em for anything?
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