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Hi all,
I Finally decided to solder all of my battery terminal crimp ends. If you look at the positive and negative terminal ends you will notice that they are crimped over the bare copper wire. While this may be ok for Honda it was bothering me. I'm used to working on and driving cars 40+ years old and electric terminal corrosion is your worst enemy. There is a reason headlights look dim on an old 6 Volt system. It's not the 6 volts its all of the corrosion in the wires. Once you clean up the wires and solder up every crimp connection (mental note these things are small and there are lots of them, so this really sucks to do). Your once peakid 6 Volt headlights are now just as bright as normal 12 volters.
So, this experience has been stewing in my head for quite a while now. I have a newish car now so I shouldn't have to worry about terminal corrosion right? Hah, after three years and a new battery I decided to make this nagging info in my head a non issue with my newish car. Corrosion will eventually happen so why not tackle it now when every thing is new and shiney. :wink:
Luckly, most of the exposed copper wire on the terminal ends was still bright so it made soldering a breeze. First I soldered both ends on the battery ground cable. This is the easiest one to get at. Make sure you unbolt it from the car. remember to wipe all of the grease off of the battery terminal end. I scraped most of the big globs of greese of and saved it to use later.
I set up my vice as a soldering station. Slather up the crimp ends with plumbers flux (this pickels the metal as it heats up so you don't need to clean much before hand) heat with a mini torch so the flux bubbles and start feeding in the solder (a lot of solder). I used 80-20 electronics grade solder with a rosin core. Rinse and repeat. I soldered both engine to body ground straps as well as the positive battery terminal. So four wires in total if you're counting. The engine ground wires were begining to turn brown and took a little longer to get clean and solder. Remember to scrape or sand the paint off of the body frame rail before bolting them back on so you get a better electrical contact.
The positive terminal is a bit tricky since it's still on the car. Pull back the rubber cover as far as it will go, remove the grease, secure the wire in a vertical position and solder the end. I had a large bottle of water and a cloth under the wire to collect drippings (just in case). As soon as you solder this section pour water over the wire to cool it down ASAP. You could even have a hose ready to do this. You don't want the heat reaching any electronics.
Remember the grease I saved, well I took what was remaining mixed with Bosch "points" grease (who still has a tube of this in their tool box?) and slathered up the battery terminals. I also used the liquid electrical tape to seal the gap between the crimp end and the wire covering. Not pretty but it's sealed now. All done and bolt everything back together.
I now have peace of mind I have solid electrical connections for my battery and engine grounds. 8)
Maybe someday I'll go through the entire engine and solder up all the tiny terminal ends I find. Yikes, what am I saying...!
I Finally decided to solder all of my battery terminal crimp ends. If you look at the positive and negative terminal ends you will notice that they are crimped over the bare copper wire. While this may be ok for Honda it was bothering me. I'm used to working on and driving cars 40+ years old and electric terminal corrosion is your worst enemy. There is a reason headlights look dim on an old 6 Volt system. It's not the 6 volts its all of the corrosion in the wires. Once you clean up the wires and solder up every crimp connection (mental note these things are small and there are lots of them, so this really sucks to do). Your once peakid 6 Volt headlights are now just as bright as normal 12 volters.
So, this experience has been stewing in my head for quite a while now. I have a newish car now so I shouldn't have to worry about terminal corrosion right? Hah, after three years and a new battery I decided to make this nagging info in my head a non issue with my newish car. Corrosion will eventually happen so why not tackle it now when every thing is new and shiney. :wink:
Luckly, most of the exposed copper wire on the terminal ends was still bright so it made soldering a breeze. First I soldered both ends on the battery ground cable. This is the easiest one to get at. Make sure you unbolt it from the car. remember to wipe all of the grease off of the battery terminal end. I scraped most of the big globs of greese of and saved it to use later.
I set up my vice as a soldering station. Slather up the crimp ends with plumbers flux (this pickels the metal as it heats up so you don't need to clean much before hand) heat with a mini torch so the flux bubbles and start feeding in the solder (a lot of solder). I used 80-20 electronics grade solder with a rosin core. Rinse and repeat. I soldered both engine to body ground straps as well as the positive battery terminal. So four wires in total if you're counting. The engine ground wires were begining to turn brown and took a little longer to get clean and solder. Remember to scrape or sand the paint off of the body frame rail before bolting them back on so you get a better electrical contact.
The positive terminal is a bit tricky since it's still on the car. Pull back the rubber cover as far as it will go, remove the grease, secure the wire in a vertical position and solder the end. I had a large bottle of water and a cloth under the wire to collect drippings (just in case). As soon as you solder this section pour water over the wire to cool it down ASAP. You could even have a hose ready to do this. You don't want the heat reaching any electronics.
Remember the grease I saved, well I took what was remaining mixed with Bosch "points" grease (who still has a tube of this in their tool box?) and slathered up the battery terminals. I also used the liquid electrical tape to seal the gap between the crimp end and the wire covering. Not pretty but it's sealed now. All done and bolt everything back together.
I now have peace of mind I have solid electrical connections for my battery and engine grounds. 8)
Maybe someday I'll go through the entire engine and solder up all the tiny terminal ends I find. Yikes, what am I saying...!
