Meet-My-Engine-Battery Day and Should This Be Hooked Up Somewhere?

[Dawn Michelle]

It wasn't an ambitious weekend.  Undone schoolwork is catching up with me.  In some ways going back to college at this time of life is gratifying, and other times I just feel like I can't be bothered.  Wait!  I felt like that back in my twenties and that's why I didn't finish.  Guess it's not an AGE thing - LOL.

Yesterday my fixit guy came over with his air compressor and fixed the valve stem and aired up that inside dually.  I think he just pried it a little to open it up, get the pin back in place, or something "like that". The idea now is that I can keep an eye on it - check it out every few days and see how serious a leak I have.

Today Juno started up beautifully - all the advice here has made a huge difference in my perspective - what I thought might be a problem, looks like it might just be operator error.  Hard starting might have been me flooding what is potentially a well-tuned carb.  We'll see in time.

My only goal this weekend was to meet my engine battery.  It's new, purchased in December right before the BF brought it over.  What I wanted to do however was to add those little red and black anti-corrosion rings.  Seemed like a good idea and I like the color-coding.  In the dark or on the side of a road it just felt like that might prevent me from making a dumb mistake when I'm feeling a little panicked.

Gloves, glasses, find the right socket attachment, right tighty, lefty loosey, negative off first, careful with the positive, use a screwdriver to pull up the terminals, add the rings...easy peasy.

But, that said, I'm not happy with two things.  The wiring looks crappy to me and the bungee cord holding down the battery has lost it's bungee.  I wrap it back up with an extra bungee I have and add battery straps to my list (one for that and one for the house that will go back in here directly).  I've attached pictures of my wiring concerns - does this look normal?  Or am I being unduly critical?  I feel while the engine is solid, the wiring is sloppy - I have them hanging down under my dash for example, and we won't even discuss the loose outlets - one with a burn mark - I'm going to be replacing.  

And then, the hose off the air filter...should it be attached somewhere?  Is that an intake?  Exhaust? Right now it's just shoved over to the side (the empty area where the long screw is is where the house battery lives).

So, that was my weekend fun.  My new extension cord came in, a rubber wheel for removing trim (that's actually pretty low on the list but I bought it in case it might be helpful with my corner-trim-removing-silicone project) and plastic razor blade scraper.  Hopefully will get a start on that next weekend and will report back what I find out with pictures.  I still haven't determined whether I'm doing the job "right" or going to temporarily caulk after removing the evil stuff.

[david craft]

a quick shout out to rich. Kudos to you for holding it down here in tech support. i havent been around for awhile. ill pop in from time to time just to stir the pot...lol. certainly you and a few others have earned your degree in AERV...archaic engineering in RV. this site has the best people. ill leave it at that.

[Dawn Michelle]

Thanks for the notes David - I'll look up that blog post.  And review what you've said.  You've made some sense out of what is initially just a mess of wires of my untrained eye. 

[david craft]

i agree with rich, on the spray...great on exposed wires, especially near the battery terminals. judging by the 5/16 bolt on the ground terminal, id say the ground wire is 10 to 8 gauge, seeing it has that thick insulation. its not the main, bit prolly runs to the cab to ground headlights and such. of fair concern is the start relay in the third picture. its got crimp connectors added (the blue ones)of dubious quality. i wrots a quick blog on connectors that is awaiting approval but i could not post a pic so Ill post one here. that relay(the small rectangular one next to the round charge relay) sends current to engage the starter. all those connections need to be brought up to permissible mechanical connection status? if they are not currently so...lol. the big black connectors are just 1/4" stakeon and replaceable, but use a good connector. dont replace if they are still good. i might just use a big wirenut to connect all the wires in the blue butt connector seen. the paired circuit breakers seen at the bottom of the picture do corrode over time. with the engine running, ground your multimeter at the battery and test voltage going in and out of the breakers. if you get 1/10 volt variance or more replace. they are less than 10 buckes for the pair.

[Dawn Michelle]

Perfect!  It's those little details :-)  Appreciate the advice.  This is on next weekend's list.

[Rich Thomas]

most wire has either printed or molded in conductor size printed on the outer insulation just from the picture the smaller one looks like a # 4- #6 awg and the grnd looks to be a #1 awg. You can find these at Tractor supply or auto parts stores like Advanced and Auto Zone. Almost anywhere batteries are sold. some of them sell complete sets of wires but I think you can fix up what you have with little effort. If you ever have a need to clean up the battery it's self you can sprinkle Baking Soda over the top and scrub with a small non metal brush and then rinse with distilled water. Baking soda neutralizes battery acid.There are wire strippers out there for bigger size cables but for individuals like us it is nearly cost prohibited. I use a razor knife and instead of cutting like your sharpening a pencil. I cut the insulation perpendicular so there is a nice straight cut to but up against the ring terminal. Try to not cut into the copper. I like to use shrink tubing but it's not necessary to cover the end of the wire and terminal. You can use plastic tape. I like scotch 33 vinyl tape. 

[Dawn Michelle]

Thanks Rich - that ground wire - how would I know what gauge that is to get the right connector? And to my untrained eye it looks like someone just used a knife to strip the wire - is there a better solution for wire this size?  I know we have some crimpers around here, but expect they would be for smaller gauges.  

[Rich Thomas]

So the red + wires, if tight in the connector constitutes a permissible mechanical connection. Sorry I used to run with a Federal Mine Electrical Inspector and that would be what he would say about an ugly but good connection. However that ground connection would shut the mine down. I would at the very least re terminate the ground leads ( put new ring terminals on them) and insulate the red right up close to the battery post. the bare copper will tarnish and corrode.and turn into a problem down the road. Those felt pads are awesome and they make a sealing spray you can spray on them that works very well. I use both on my tractors and lawn equipment as well as my campers and cars.