hey first i hope your projects are going good. I have a little problem i bought a battery from autozone and it is the best there and others in chicago have the same problem i checked around. I had to install those post caps for more connection and widen the connection area,my question is do these caps make good contact or do they cause connection problems? I need to know pretty quickly here for this weekend of driving and racing the battery is clean and tight with no corrosion and the cables are new with almost zero resistance. chinese parts really suck bad. I checked for resistance everywhere it points to the caps i had to install. can these caps take a huge shaving maybe inside? the battery is fully charged also. Has anyone had this problem with them?

 

Are you saying you installed the top post adapters on a side post type battery?

If yes technically any additional junction adds resistance and if its of Chinese manufacturer multiply by 2 , but if everything is clean and fits well it shouldn't pose a problem .

 

I agree with retro ranger, we believe what trying to get across is these?
I would have gone with a group 24 top post battery, I purchased mine right off the shelf A.Z. went with the best duralast gold and the bugger is still going strong after 13 years

Pat

 

What in the world is a post cap? And what do you mean by "can these caps take a huge shaving inside"? Are you talking about a top or side post battery? We need more info.......

 

these caps are a shim that goes over the top posts sold at various places. I too have a dura last gold battery but after a good cleaning the posts were smaller and i took off very little metal and the cables etc are brand new and tight. I am seeing after a full charge and full power from the battery after a start a dead spot until cooler then it starts with no problem this only happened after the adition of these shims. I am seeing everything pointing to these shims and i have to now use them. I said earlier do they corrode inside or upon heating create a huge resistance and does anyone have experience with them before.

 

So new cables! what style ends do you have? Did you do a heavy duty scraping of the top post to undersize them? Also the positive post is slightly larger in diameter than the negative!

Grab some pics of what this bugger looks like, is see the shims pic #1
from autozone. Do your cable ends look like pic#2? You could cheat it smaller by shaving the bolt area inside the two tabs to make clamp harder!

Pat

 

Are you talking about these things that 1970cs posted?



If so, I have never seen or heard of anything like this before.

If the posts on your battery were made too small in diameter, it needs to be returned for one with posts that are the right size.
Personally, I have owned many cars, and bought many batteries, and have never seen a battery, old or new, with posts whose diameter was too small.

Alternatively, your cables could be stretched too large, and you may need new cables, or to squash the malleable lead ends smaller again.

Clearly, if these caps are made out of steel, as they appear to be, corrosion could, and would, form at the junction of the steel and the lead, which would cause resistance.
Also, the steel has a very different hardness and malleability than the lead, so that while the lead clamps conform to the shape of the lead posts for good contact, the steel covers would not do so.

All battery connections must be cleaned until they shine, and should be protected from corrosion with vaseline or a similar grease, and I would get rid of any dissimilar metals that are in between your connections.

This is all very basic stuff.

- Eric

edit:
Looking at that picture again, nice and large, it looks like the part could be made out of lead.
If it is, then so long as the cap, post, and clamp are all cleaned to where they shine, and the clamp is nice and tight, I see no reason why it wouldn't work fine.

I also see no reason for the cap in the first place, though.

 

not the cable it is the metal or lead piece, I have never had to screw with such bs parts are just lousy today I paid over 150 for both special cables trunk to front starter block etc,I do not want to take them apart and cause more possible resistance like now or overtime. I bought these pieces from oreillys is there a better solution to curing the nagging problem with the pieces. the battery and cables mated perfect before and now after a little cleaning the battery posts seemed to almost just shave off easilylike maybe real soft metal? I was wondering if maybe other stores carried a better version or that the inside corrodes and you will not know it until it is to late. If someone carries a brand that works better or i can stop the possible corrosion let me know. dielectric grease also does not help.

 

I agree it is very basic and have had several types of cables and batterys it seems really strange to me also,I had this problem after i had to put them in place and did not know there properties etc. i had to clean them for conectivity first then it set in. i did a little researching and also found out that autozone had a batch of bad metal on some batterys out there it seems a shame considering the time span that i will have to discard this battery there regional can be a pain to deal withor maybe i should contact the attorneys general for help.

 

standard makes them part no. bp56 called battery post shims. they are madeout of lead and work great use them alot.

 

I have never seen those either. When i tried to install the original negative cable from my 71 it was way to big for the post on my optima in my 72. I got an after market cable and it fit fine. that was a couple years ago

fast fwd to last week when I noticed my positive cable end is fractured on the opposite side of the post hole from where the bolt is....i assume thats from tightening it down to make good contact on an undersized post

looks like I will be picking up some 'post caps' as well

 

exactly this new stuff is out of tolerance to bad oem parts are so scarce. cfhcar who carries the good standard ones and thank you i do not want to have more problems a long way out etc. I love oem parts but they are almost non existant ,you would think with gm a body demands that good parts done right would always be around but we almost have to think a little sideways now a days. please post who caries them

 

thanks to everyone for the info sometimes someone else has the experience also. I need to know from anyone who carries the standard fillers listed above if they work the best why not use them ,instead of a couple hundred for a new battery due to chinese bs., like i said oem parts are almost non existent nowadays in all areas.

 

On the crimp type screw lead cable end, you can just cut some lead off the gap where they come together. Why introduce something else in there that can corrode.

 

standard motor prodoucts. they been around a long time a make tune-up parts, and sensor and switches. carquest and indepents carries their parts

 

thank you dude. I hope all of us do not have to contend with these bs parts nowadays, I always had good parts in the past but things have really changed and other sources of knowledge have to be found like all of us as a group no exceptions. We unfortunately have to think a little sideways nowadays. I like to stick only parts i know that work on my ride. I like my car for racing.shows ,hunting, cruising etc. there is no need to let these cars sit unless we have to let them good luck to everyone lets get the job done. enjoy it or finish it but overall you should enjoy them period however done to do it for yourself.