How To Repair A Broken Battery Terminal Post

Tony Lawrence was born in 1948 and spent nigh of his career as a cocky-employed computer troubleshooter for Unix systems.

We are able to drive golf carts on the private roads where we live. Information technology'due south a great convenience for running downward to the postal center or the clubhouse.

That convenience came to a sudden halt one day. I pulled into my driveway after a trip to get our mail and noticed that my bombardment meter was fluctuating on and off as I hit pocket-sized bumps.

Well, that's easy. Something is loose, right? Probably just the clips to the meter. I pulled open up the seat to take a look.

I felt around with my finger and found that one terminal was very hot. I could as well experience that the nut was loose, so I went to get a wrench and came back to tighten it. I take to bank check these things every at present and so; they don't usually loosen upwards, simply I wasn't concerned. That is, until I found that I couldn't tighten information technology downwardly with the wrench. It but spun, because the thread it was attached to was spinning loose in the lead of the battery lug.

How to Repair Cleaved Terminal Post


Follow these steps carefully.
• Remove bombardment (use strap if you lot have one).
• Disconnect battery cable.
• Drill pilot hole in battery post no deeper than three/4 inch.
• Use advisable size screw and washer to secure cable tight.

A normal battery post and cable. — A normal bombardment post and cable.

You can meet what a normal bombardment last looks like in the picture abovet. At that place is a threaded lug that sits in a pb tab. That is what had come loose.

In the table above yous'll discover a summary of the steps I took to repair the loose lug. For more detail and photos, hither is where I went to notice instructions. It was obvious that these were the right steps to have, but I was in a hurry and took some shortcuts. I'm going to go dorsum and "do information technology right" earlier long, simply I was able to get the cart going.

The trouble was that I couldn't find my tap set. That'southward not something I use very often. I might have lent it to someone and forgotten about it, or maybe it just disappeared when we moved. For all I know it got sold at our yard auction along with other tools I idea I would never need once more. Who remembers? Not me.

Surreptitious Male Removal Methods

I called a poker buddy who lives upwardly the street and asked if he had a gear up. He'd misplaced his besides (I nominate tap and die set every bit the nigh commonly lost tools in our community), and suggested but setting a screw into the atomic number 82.

Pb is soft. Why not? Drill a little pilot pigsty no more than than 3/4 inch deep (deeper and you lot'll be into the acid) and screw in a screw. Not great for maintenance, but it sounded like a plan. My poker pal drove downwards to help.

I have a lifting strap I bought from Buggies Unlimited. I remember it would have been almost impossible to remove the bombardment from the carts without it. I highly recommend ownership one of these.

Of course we couldn't easily disconnect the cablevision. In that location wasn't whatever way to grab the bolt to keep it from turning, and so I disconnected the cable from the other bombardment instead and then pulled the battery to become information technology out where we could work on it.

We fussed with it for one-half an hour, trying various futile schemes. I even tried sawing it with a hacksaw. No luck. Nosotros finally gave up and I applied the fourth dimension honored traditional secret male removal technique: creature force. I tore the damn thing out of the lead with my very angry blank hands.

More Broken Stuff

We were now ready to make a hole for the spiral.

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Fixed!

We found an appropriate screw and a brass washer of the correct size and screwed that cable downward tight.

Yeah, I know it will probably come up loose only that might be some time from now. These batteries don't final forever, anyway. They say ii-vii years, with the longer life coming if you avoid discharging them fully between charges and maintain them religiously. I do that, and then I might be good for another five years with some luck.

If it does come lose, I'll either put in a slightly bigger spiral or try to find somebody hither who still has a tap set. We can't have all lost everything we ever had, right?

Epilogue

A few days later on I drove down to our garden to pick some squash. Imagine my delight when I got back in the cart and found the battery meter flat at zero. Of course I cursed myself for taking the easy fix and called my wife to come get me.

While waiting for her and kicking the ground petulantly, I opened upwardly the seat to see how bad it was. To my surprise, the screw repair was holding firm. That wasn't the problem. Wiggling cables while watching the meter led me to the true source: the other battery concluding!

In our haste to put everything back and my joy at fixing the problem so easily, I had only hand-tightened the opposite, positive terminal, and had put away my wrench without ever snugging it down. That had worked loose from the comforting jolts of a golf cart suspension.

I didn't have a wrench with me, but I had my fingers, so I practical the Undercover Male Fauna Strength Bare Finger Tightening Technique. This actually worked well enough to get me home—with my married woman following, just in instance. Once abode, I tightened it downward, nevertheless cursing softly nether my jiff.

For some reason my poker buddy thought that was rather funny when I saw him once again the following calendar week. Guess which game I programme to deal every time it is my turn?

It's been two weeks now and I have had no more than bug. If I practice, and can't find anyone with a tap set, I'll use another Hole-and-corner Male Technique that involves going to the shop and buying an overpriced tool that I may never need again other than to lend to someone and and then promptly forget all about it—until I do need information technology again, of grade. But past and so I won't remember who I lent it to.

Update

I was driving back from picking some tardily tomatoes at our garden when a loud POP from nether the seat startled me. A few feet later, the cart drifted to a halt.

The battery had blown, every bit seen in the picture to the right. No, not the mail service I repaired, the other post. I thought I must accept been careless about pushing downwards on the cap afterwards checking the water; bubbles hydrogen gas and a fiddling spark paid me for my sloppiness.

Nope, that wasn't information technology. See bad cable causes expensive battery replacement for the real story.

That was a $148.00 lesson in bombardment maintenance.

I'll too take to get a new cable; the insulation burned abroad. I patched information technology with tape for now, just will need to pick up a new one.

This article is accurate and true to the best of the author's knowledge. Content is for advisory or entertainment purposes only and does non substitute for personal counsel or professional person communication in business organization, financial, legal, or technical matters.