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I own a 97 TJ and my battery terminals were finally chewed up enough to justify having to get new ones. Upon inspection you will notice (at least on a 97) that you have two cables running off the neg. and two off the pos. leads.
Ok, so how do you put on terminals? To have it done OEM you have to buy the ENTIRE cabling. after 13 yrs of use, I decided to upgrade not replace.
What I did was install welding cable for the negative (black) to ground and the positive(red) to the starter. I went to the local welding supplier and bought about 7 ft of 1/0 gauge welding wire.. It's pronounced ( one ought).. otherwise they might look at you stupid... lol.
Then I went over to the local CarQuest and bought one ft of red 4 gauge wire, and 4 ft of black 4 gauge wire. i also bought 26" of 6 gauge wire in red.
Wire purchasing is done..
now onto the expensive stuff.. the terminals..
while at CarQuest, I bought three 1/0 terminals with 3/8 holes.. You'll need a 1/0 terminal with a 5/16 terminal opening for you starter. you'll also need a 5/16 terminal 4 gauge with a 90 degree bend if you can find it... you also need a 5/16 6 gauge with a 90 degree bend. finally you will need a 6 ga terminal with 1/4" hole in it for the alternator. here is a picture from custombatterycables.com.. i used it for my design and it works well. I saved only about 20.00 but i got to use better terminal ends and then were not installed the way that they do it.. if a battery lead needs replacing again i simply unbolt the cables and replace..
There were a number of items that I did not have, so the price of this project went up for the tools.
The most tricky part of this project is mating the 1/0 terminal ends to the cable. you have to eyeball how much insulation you need to take off and you need to carefully thread the cable into the terminal.. easy nuff.. not really.. after you get it on you want to twist the terminal several times in the same direction.. then you pull it back off... WHAT>???? Yeah you gotta take it off. now you get to use solder.
Be sure to use electrical solder not plumber solder... i had to buy a propane torch for this. you put the terminal in a vice with the opening pointing upward. heat it up w/the torch and then fill it about 1/2 way with solder. while it is still in its liquid form you rethread the cable into the terminal. keep the torch on it and press it firmly down. then take the torch off and let it cool for a few seconds.. then flip it over and heat it up again until you see solder oozzing down toward the insulation... DONE.. now repeat on every freaking terminal connection.. Be sure to use heat shrink when your done. Thats about all there is to it..
For the starter connection, my Tj had two cables running to it. one was a small cable that ran back to the fuse box and the other one that you made is one of the 1/0 gauge.. that runs to the positive. anyways, my tj had a rubber grommet that held both of these wires in the rubber at the point where it attaches to the starter. to get them free i had to use a knife and cut them apart...
For battery terminals i used Mil Spec battery terminals that you can get from Kilby Enterprises for about 18.00 shipped.
After my project was done I noticed that my black winch cable was chewed up and I used the extra 1/0 cable that i had for it.. simple enough. i learned everything while doing the battery cable upgrade.. simple 1/0 3/8 eyelet connectors on each end soldered in place and it was a simple swap.....
Hope this how to gives you some I-want-to.
Price list:
(1) 1/0 welding cable: 1.71 per ft 11.97
(3) 1/0 terminals w/ 3/8 eyelet 1.22 ea 3.66
(1) 1/0 terminal w/ 5/16 eyelet 1.22 1.22
(1) 5 ft of 4 gauge wire 0.50 per ft 2.50
(1) 3 ft of 6 gauge wire 0.50 per ft 1.50
(1) pack of 3/8 heat shrink 6.00
(1) pack of 4 gauge heat shrink 4.00
(1) pack of 6 gauge heat shrink 4.00
(1) electrical solder 6.25
(1) propane torch kit 16.95
(1) 5/16 4ga terminal end w/ a 90 bend 2.00
(1) 5/16 6ga terminal end w/a 90 bend 2.00
(2) Military Spec battery cable terminals 18.00
wire looms 10.00
6 pack of corona priceless
Total
95.58 w/tax
Ok, so how do you put on terminals? To have it done OEM you have to buy the ENTIRE cabling. after 13 yrs of use, I decided to upgrade not replace.
What I did was install welding cable for the negative (black) to ground and the positive(red) to the starter. I went to the local welding supplier and bought about 7 ft of 1/0 gauge welding wire.. It's pronounced ( one ought).. otherwise they might look at you stupid... lol.
Then I went over to the local CarQuest and bought one ft of red 4 gauge wire, and 4 ft of black 4 gauge wire. i also bought 26" of 6 gauge wire in red.
Wire purchasing is done..
now onto the expensive stuff.. the terminals..
while at CarQuest, I bought three 1/0 terminals with 3/8 holes.. You'll need a 1/0 terminal with a 5/16 terminal opening for you starter. you'll also need a 5/16 terminal 4 gauge with a 90 degree bend if you can find it... you also need a 5/16 6 gauge with a 90 degree bend. finally you will need a 6 ga terminal with 1/4" hole in it for the alternator. here is a picture from custombatterycables.com.. i used it for my design and it works well. I saved only about 20.00 but i got to use better terminal ends and then were not installed the way that they do it.. if a battery lead needs replacing again i simply unbolt the cables and replace..
There were a number of items that I did not have, so the price of this project went up for the tools.
The most tricky part of this project is mating the 1/0 terminal ends to the cable. you have to eyeball how much insulation you need to take off and you need to carefully thread the cable into the terminal.. easy nuff.. not really.. after you get it on you want to twist the terminal several times in the same direction.. then you pull it back off... WHAT>???? Yeah you gotta take it off. now you get to use solder.
Be sure to use electrical solder not plumber solder... i had to buy a propane torch for this. you put the terminal in a vice with the opening pointing upward. heat it up w/the torch and then fill it about 1/2 way with solder. while it is still in its liquid form you rethread the cable into the terminal. keep the torch on it and press it firmly down. then take the torch off and let it cool for a few seconds.. then flip it over and heat it up again until you see solder oozzing down toward the insulation... DONE.. now repeat on every freaking terminal connection.. Be sure to use heat shrink when your done. Thats about all there is to it..
For the starter connection, my Tj had two cables running to it. one was a small cable that ran back to the fuse box and the other one that you made is one of the 1/0 gauge.. that runs to the positive. anyways, my tj had a rubber grommet that held both of these wires in the rubber at the point where it attaches to the starter. to get them free i had to use a knife and cut them apart...
For battery terminals i used Mil Spec battery terminals that you can get from Kilby Enterprises for about 18.00 shipped.
After my project was done I noticed that my black winch cable was chewed up and I used the extra 1/0 cable that i had for it.. simple enough. i learned everything while doing the battery cable upgrade.. simple 1/0 3/8 eyelet connectors on each end soldered in place and it was a simple swap.....
Hope this how to gives you some I-want-to.
Price list:
(1) 1/0 welding cable: 1.71 per ft 11.97
(3) 1/0 terminals w/ 3/8 eyelet 1.22 ea 3.66
(1) 1/0 terminal w/ 5/16 eyelet 1.22 1.22
(1) 5 ft of 4 gauge wire 0.50 per ft 2.50
(1) 3 ft of 6 gauge wire 0.50 per ft 1.50
(1) pack of 3/8 heat shrink 6.00
(1) pack of 4 gauge heat shrink 4.00
(1) pack of 6 gauge heat shrink 4.00
(1) electrical solder 6.25
(1) propane torch kit 16.95
(1) 5/16 4ga terminal end w/ a 90 bend 2.00
(1) 5/16 6ga terminal end w/a 90 bend 2.00
(2) Military Spec battery cable terminals 18.00
wire looms 10.00
6 pack of corona priceless
Total
95.58 w/tax
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