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4/0 Copper Battery Terminals Found

NH575E

NH575E

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2015
Messages
1,189
Location
North, FL
Occupation
Retired Machinist
Recently purchased a used backhoe that had those awful emergency battery cable ends on it. I know it's best to replace the whole cable but these cleaned up and looked decent except the original ends were gone. Could not find any 4/0 solder on ends local but found them HERE on the net. Nice that they actually had them in positive and negative also instead of universal. Got them in a few days and they fit the battery terminals and cable perfect. Just supported the cables in a straight out position, heated the terminals with a propane torch, and fed 40-60 rosin core solder in till they filled up. I didn't think to order any large heat shrink so I taped off the cable side with electrical tape. Machine fires right up!
 
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Delmer

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
8,891
Location
WI
Nice. The photovoltaic people tell me that you should crimp your fittings instead of soldering. Solder has a higher resistance than a crimped fitting, the crimped fitting is so tight it's almost welded etc. I think the solder won't stop it from starting now, or in 20 years when acid has eaten away the wires in the crimped fitting.
 
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lantraxco

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
7,704
Location
Elsewhen
Crimp and then solder. The mechanical connection keeps the battery cable in the terminal, the solder will fill in the gaps and add conductivity as well as sealing out moisture and acid to a degree. I only do this on my personal vehicles and equipment, in the shop I do a factory crimp and call it good, the terminal will rot off before that crimped joint will ever fail :rolleyes:
 
NH575E

NH575E

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2015
Messages
1,189
Location
North, FL
Occupation
Retired Machinist
I was worried about these breaking if I attempted to crimp them. I have some eyelet solder terminals that have a small hole in front to feed solder into. I usually do crimp then solder those. I tried drilling a hole in these and the drill would not penetrate. The description for them does say they are crimp or solder but they are some kind of cast tinned copper that is very hard. They should work a good long while and if they fail I will buy new cables. I gave these a good tug after they cooled and could not pull them off.
 
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Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,325
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
I have actually been to factory school on wire terminations, and there they told us not to solder after a crimp: the heating process makes the metal relax and any tinned coating flow away, and the crimp tension is somewhat lost and it becomes a solder only joint. Solder is fine but it flows down the strands and makes the wire stiff to a point where it becomes flexible and that is where it will break in the future.

My favorite way to fix battery cables is by crimping on a copper terminal as mentioned above and then covering the whole thing with heavy duty adhesive lined shrink of the right color (which I remembered to slide on the cable before crimping of course) but to be honest, usually I just crimp them on and be done with it. Including my own vehicle.
 
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