Battery Terminals

[Oldie]

Thought it was time for a bit of maintenance.
The battery terminals didn't look the greatest. but also wanted to check why my narva spots stopped working.
Problem number 1. there is a short fused cable from the positive battery terminal to the relay. Thats pic 1.
what would cause it to burn out like it did, burn the rubber and almost melt the metal inside terminals. I had to break the fuse out, it was burnt in.
Pic 2. I've never seen a battery terminal like this before. what is it ? is it original Nissan ?
Pic 3. I think is the main terminal from the alternator. Is this original Nissan stuff ? I need to replace them as they are shot and I really don't want to have to replace a full cable.
cheers

 

[Old.Tony]

Picture 1: not unexpected with the spade-lug type of fuse holder. Your photo is superb - you can see the oxidisation inside the lug. This reduces the effective area that can conduct electricity, and when there's only a small amount of material conducting the power (2 x 100W is about 16A) it becomes a resistor - a heater. Regular maintenance would be remove fuse, reinstall, remove, reinstall just to clean the lugs. Keep electrical connections clean and covered in this stuff.

Picture 2: I can't tell if that's rust or seaweed! Wow. That needs some attention. Not sure if it's genuine, I'm not that familiar with the ZD30 engine bay.

Picture 3: It's seen better days! If the wire is intact (broken strands = reduced contact area = resistor and in a cable that big = engine bay fire) then grab some rescue tape or some heavy duty heatshrink and re-protect those cables. Clean up or replace the end and whack some of that spray on them to keep them in good order. I don't know if they're genuine. Don't replace with aluminium (too brittle), steel (prone to rust) or copper (too soft). You could grab some brass about 3mm thick and make it yourself, I guess. You could probably make a clamp of a second piece with two smaller stainless steel bolts (with nylock nuts) - 4mm thread recommended.

 

[Stelianos]

the terminal (pic 2)is genuine nissan yes but its full of grease previous owner used to avoid rust, remove it degrease it and get a good metal to metal contant to the battery and then use grease ontop if you want to seal it against rust.
pic2 is a genuine terminal as well. just clean them up

 

[Oldie]

Hi Tony and thanks for the tip about the protector stuff.
Seaweed ? LOL it actually looks like a plastic coating, it has to be scraped off. I've never seen anything like it unless it's a baked on terminal grease of some sort. I've always cleaned the battery posts and lugs with a light wet and dry and give them a light coat of vasoline on a regular basis.
This is first time I've checked the old nav.
The main worry was seeing the burnt out fuse.

 

[Oldie]

the terminal (pic 2)is genuine nissan yes but its full of grease previous owner used to avoid rust, remove it degrease it and get a good metal to metal contant to the battery and then use grease ontop if you want to seal it against rust.
pic2 is a genuine terminal as well. just clean them up

thanks for the heads up but the terminal is shot and needs replacing.
Is there a reason for the RED plastic on the positive terminal ?

 

[bods]

thanks for the heads up but the terminal is shot and needs replacing.
Is there a reason for the RED plastic on the positive terminal ?

Normally the red plastic has a cover that clips over the top to protect the terminal

 

[Oldie]

So I guess I can just get brass terminals to do the replacement.
I couldn't see the logic with the red plastic.

 

[bods]

Yeah mate. If you're worried, you can get rubbery flexible covers from repco or supercheap instead, but if you don't care, just plain terminals will be fine

 

[Stelianos]

no idea why its red and yes it has a cap to cover it, you can chech it out on my garage i have a photo of the engine bay there.

 

[Old.Tony]

The cap is to protect the battery terminal from accidental shorts. Every other part of the car is connected to the negative battery terminal directly without a fuse. If one of those touches the positive terminal, it'll all be over fairly quickly, at least for the battery, and maybe for the car.

 

[Oldie]

Battery posts cleaned, wiring terminals cleaned with some rough wet and dry after all the baked on crap was scraped off, replaced with heavy duty brass and a coat of vasoline.
The old girl even starts better and that surprised me.
Got a new inline fuse holder for battery to relay but the cable is a bit short. Not sure what to do with that, maybe just one join and then reconnect.
One job done, what can I think of next.