Type 44 batt cable splice?

[frank j. bauer]

At 01:01 AM 3/28/02 EST, DGraber460 at aol.com wrote:
>Recently I posted a problem with a 91 100 not charging with new alt. and
>battery.
>List consensus was "the passenger foot well splice of the battery cable".
>Sounds reasonable.
>I got back to the car tonight (again it's not my car, I'm trying to help a
>non-Audiphile), and pulled up the door sill & carpeting from the back seat to
>the firewall. I found nice new looking flexible cable, but no splice.
>I give up. Where is it?


perhaps this from my archives will help:

frank



>Return-path: <quattro-admin at audifans.com>
>From: "Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz at kla-tencor.com>
>To: "'Paul Meyers'" <paul.meyers at citrix.com>,
>        "'quattro at audifans.com'"
>	 <quattro at audifans.com>
>Subject: RE: Replacing alternator to battery "connector"
>Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 13:20:32 -0700
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>
>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.
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