VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Possible 6 volt battery cable problem??

How can I determine if a 6 volt positive battery cable is bad? I've always had trouble starting my '31 especially after it has been sitting for awhile even though I have a trickle charge on the battery. When I went to start it today it would hardly turn over. Meter tested the battery & it registered at 6 volts. In the past I had the started bench tested & it turns over fine. Today I noticed while I was trying to start the car the positive battery cable & the positive post were very hot to the touch. As you felt the cable back towards the starter it was cool & the starter was not hot to the touch either. The braided negative cable looks fine & does't get hot. Finally jumped started it with a 12 volt. Any suggestions?

As always thanks for any knowledge you can share with me.

Florida boy

I would suggest first removing the cable from the battery and cleaning both the battery post and the "interior" of the cable and install the cable. Then I would clamp a good heavy booster cable on the The terminal and the lug on the starter. See if the srarter turns over faster with both cables connected.
.....OR....just get a new nice and heavy 27" battery cable from a farm type store like Tractor Supply, ect. Either 00 or 2-00 size. Should be less than $10.00. Your old cable may be rotting aray inside the insulation causing high resistance and "heat".

Most batteries would read 6 volts statically and would read lower during cranking. Check the pacific gravity of the battery it will tell you if all the cells are charged equally. The terminal and wire should not be that hot could be corrosion inside the terminal or under the insulation on the wire best to change the cable and clean everything

thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I'll give it a try what you suggested & give you an update to see if that is the solution to my problem.

thanks

A fully charged battery will test 2.1 volts per cell 6.3 or 12.6. An easy test is voltage drop use a digital volt meter hook one lead to the battery cable clamp and the other to the post, same pos. or neg. try to start and if you have more than a .3 volts you need to clean the connection. next move the test lead from the clamp to the starter post to check circut must be loaded. you can check the ground circut the same way. My 30 cranked slow and it was because of slight drag on the starter armature.

Make sure that your positive cable is not a 12 volt positive cable. As Chev Nut suggested the 6 volt cable should be 00 or larger.

Also, be sure that you have a good ground on your battery cable and on your starter motor. The ground cable should be bolted to bare metal, and the nose cone of your starter motor should be bare metal where it attaches to the bell housing as well.

If any place on a cable or terminal feels hot to the touch you have too high a resistance. Clean or replace. Feeling for warm or hot connections is a quick way to find the problem. All parts of the cables should be cool or cold. If all cables and connections are cool then check the voltage (or better load test) in the battery. If below 2.1 volts per cell then charge until you get to that value. If you cannot achieve that voltage then have the battery tested. If all that is ok then have the starter tested.

Hi,
Do you think your starter is ok.
I saw starter-motors that because of bad or seized bearings turned only with big resistance, so engine wouldn't quickly start!! Such has an effect on batteries and cables.
Marc

Well I think I've solved the problem by replacing the positive cable with a heavy duty one. Seem to turn over faster than it ever did. Hopefully this weekend I can get it on the road & see if I have any problems re-starting it.I also check the gravity in the cells & they all register the same. so far so good

Thanks,

Florida Boy