Replacing alternator to battery "connector"

[Buchholz, Steven]

What a great post!  Thanks for the detailed information Paul!

Perhaps the only tweak I would recommend is that since you are not cutting
off the damaged ends of the copper a liberal application of a contact
enhancer such as Caig's R5 Power Booster (http://www.caig.com/c-r5.htm) to
make the most of what's left.  I have yet to do this myself, but in the
event of major damage to the conductors I would recommend trying to cut as
much away as possible by repositioning the wire (I've found long loops in
the +12 wire under the back seat).  You did a great job of sealing the
connection, so it isn't clear to me that dielectric grease is a necessity,
but if you wanted to use this, I'd recommend applying it to the completed
joint after assembly.  

IUD!
Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)

> This post is designed to supplement the Mike Larosa post of July 1999
about
> replacing a corroded connector between battery and alternator. The
symptoms
> are failure to charge a tested good battery with a tested good alternator
> and evident heat damage to the area of the connector (under the carpet up
> against the passenger side firewall - bundled with a bunch of other stuff,
> including the boost sensor hose between ECU and intake manifold). 
> 
> The connector itself is made of what looks like brass, is about 75 mm long
> and roughly 15 mm in diameter. Evidently, the two wires were inserted into
> the connector and mechanically swaged together. The wire coming from the
> alternator has much finer strands than the wire coming from the battery,
> though they are roughly the same diameter. The insulation on mine had
> degraded so much that it came easily came off in chunks, revealing
> thoroughly corroded stranded copper wire on sides of the connector. One
> wonders what the engineers could have been thinking. This is not a good
> design for long-term use.
> 
> First, disconnect the battery. Remove the glove compartment and underdash
> trim on the passenger side. Remove the ECU cover, so you can released the
> carpet wedged behind it.
> Release or clip the tie holding the big bundle of wires and stuff to the
> footwell firewall. Free the big cable from the other wires and such in the
> bundle. Remove all the loose insulation you can from the area of the
> connector. You're now ready to begin removing and replacing 
> the splice.
> 
> Rather than cut out the connector as Mike did, shortening the cable by
> roughly 100 mm, I determined to save as much of the wire as possible by
> removing the connector without cutting the wire. If you have a lot of
tools,
> sometimes you can use them to advantage.
> 
> Using an air powered micro die grinder (sort of like a slightly larger
> version of your dentist's drill) mounted with a diamond coated disk
(roughly
> 25 mm in diameter), I cut two slots in the connector along its length on
> opposite sides. The die grinder cost me about $40 at Harbor Freight Tools.
> The disk was about $5, along with some other diamond coated cutters. Of
> course, I already had the air compressor.
> 
> The slots were approximately 3 mm deep, the thickness of the connector
> itself. This cut the connector into two halves. It turns out that the
wires
> weren't butted, but had about a 10 mm gap at the center of the connector.
I
> inserted a screw driver into the gap and rather easily pried the two
halves
> apart. With a little more effort, I removed the connector halves from the
> wire without breaking so much as a strand.
> 
> I cleaned the copper wires with rust remover and mechanical abrasion (sand
> paper), rinsed them with water and coated them with anti-oxidant grease
(GB
> Ox-gard, Home Depot electrical section, $4). 
> 
> Next I inserted about a 150 mm length of exterior grade shrink wrap (big,
> thick stuff used for splicing buried electrical cables with 240 volts
> flowing through them: Ideal Direct Burial Splice Kit; also available in
> Canada and the UK; cost $9 at Home Depot) onto the battery end, since
there
> is a longer length of cable on that side. 
> 
> I then inserted the greased cable ends into a new splicer/connector. This
> one uses screws to provide mechanical clamping on each end to be spliced.
> The splicer I used was designed for wire up to #1/0, exactly the size
needed
> for the wire at hand (Ilsco brand, SPA-0-1B, made by Adamax, Inc., $4 Home
> Depot). I screwed down the screws creating a sturdy, resilient connection.
> Before sliding the shrink wrap over the splice, reconnect the battery and
> start the engine. Using a DVM, test the voltage drop across the splice.
Mine
> registered .06 Volts, plenty acceptable in a 13.7 volt system.
> 
> Slide the shrink wrap over the splice, making sure to roughly center the
> spice in the shrink wrap. Use a heat gun to shrink the wrap. Paint each
end
> of the shrunk wrap with liquid electrical tape to seal the ends, providing
> an nice, watertight seal on the ends. 
> 
> Replace the carpet, ECU cover, etc. and you're back on the road.