Battery Connection Anti-Corrosion Gel and Other Connections Too

[fjpikul]

If you go to Ford service they Wii probably charge you $8 or more per screw. With Kendalls info you can source your own. We did a big group buy many years ago for about $0.15 a screw. Looking at losses from belly pans.

Oh, a lot of service depts come to us for the screws.

 

[HighHP]

Lowes has what you need for the license plate. $2.50 for six.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-6mm-1-x-20mm-Phillips-Drive-Machine-Screws-6-Count/999994854

 

[drilling]

Does this set up look alright? I cut off the ring and place it on the nodes and plan to place the car battery connector part (sorry dont know the name for it lol) on top of it.

 

[PeteK]

No, that's not how to attach it. As you set it up, the battery terminal would have to be pressed on top with a lot of force (hundreds of pounds) to keep those in tight contact. I can almost assure you that those will eventually come loose.

You should cut them off and crimp on new rings. Pick the size rings that will fit to the gauge of the wire, and that will fit to the nut and bolt that clamp the terminal to the battery. I don't have a picture handy, maybe someone else will post it.

Until then, use a cigarette lighter jack on your battery tender and plug it into the cigarette lighter socket in the car.

I understand that you are a newbie on electrical stuff, so let's work you through it to get some practical experience.

 

[fjpikul]

That will work, but that pigtail cable is awfull short. Where will it run to and how will it reach the cable from the charger?

 

[PeteK]

Frank, we both posted about the same time. You are right in observing that the pigtail is too short to reach outside the car. I still say that cutting the rings and opening them to go around the terminal itself is a poor approach.

 

[extrap]

Surprised I couldn't find a nice, clearer, more obvious pic than this, but the battery tender lead's rings are normally attached to either the lug-tightening bolt circled in orange (or if our car's starter wire terminals happened to also have the additional bolt circled in green for attaching additional power cables / accessories to, you could use that):

 

[drilling]

Surprised I couldn't find a nice, clearer, more obvious pic than this, but the battery tender lead's rings are normally attached to either the lug-tightening bolt circled in orange (or if our car's starter wire terminals happened to also have the additional bolt circled in green for attaching additional power cables / accessories to, you could use that):
View attachment 70013

Actually I already have battery tender attached to it but different brand. From the look of it, it looks like this one.

Battery Tender®

Discover top-rated Battery Tender® chargers and maintainers. Shop our reliable, automatic battery chargers designed for cars, motorcycles, ATVs, boats, and more. Ensure long-lasting battery life with advanced technology from Battery Tender®. Fast shipping, industry-leading warranties, helpful...

www.batterytender.com

 

[fjpikul]

I agree with you Pete. That pigtail is to a CTEC charger and will most likely be loose when the cables are attached. The Battery Tender pigtail has much smaller rings and is much longer than the CTEC. I have had the Battery Tender Junior on my car since I bought it new almost 19 years ago. Never had any problems. I am on my third one (cheap at Harbor Freight). Drilling will learn just how hot it gets down there when you want to connect after a long drive. I don't remember how far down the post the cable goes, but it can probably be wedged in there to work sitting under the cable.

 

[drilling]

I agree with you Pete. That pigtail is to a CTEC charger and will most likely be loose when the cables are attached. The Battery Tender pigtail has much smaller rings and is much longer than the CTEC. I have had the Battery Tender Junior on my car since I bought it new almost 19 years ago. Never had any problems. I am on my third one (cheap at Harbor Freight). Drilling will learn just how hot it gets down there when you want to connect after a long drive. I don't remember how far down the post the cable goes, but it can probably be wedged in there to work sitting under the cable.

Which model do you recommend from Battery Tender Jr? Seems like there are a few different types.

 

[drilling]

Thank you FGT forum folks. You guys are the kindest people on the internet. Not many forums are nice to newbies like myself.

 

[extrap]

Battery Tender Jr will work, but you still need to check to see the green light once in a while as they don't last forever. Quality seems to be getting worse, like so many other things.

 

[fjpikul]

That is the model: Battery Tender, Junior. It is mainly a trickle charger for motorcycles. As opposed to the standard Battery Tender.

 

[drilling]

That is the model: Battery Tender, Junior. It is mainly a trickle charger for motorcycles. As opposed to the standard Battery Tender.

Seems like theres 750mA and 800mA versions. Which one should I get? Does it work on AGM battery?

 

[HighHP]

OK, everybody laugh at this one. I have used the Harbor Freight battery maintainers for years. I have too many cars and too many batteries to maintain. I have multiple Harbor Freight maintainers. I also use the Harbor Freight multi-meter to monitor the battery/maintainer voltage. Harbor Freight recently upgraded the maintainer with charge status lights. If you follow the maintainer voltage, it charges to a voltage of about 14 volts then maintains a voltage of about 13.3 volts. It actually works very well. I have higher quality multi-meters to verify cheaper meters and have found the HF cheap multi-meters work great for general use like this. I have them spread all about my house, shop, garage. etc.
FYI - the Ford supplied maintainer is the same as the HF cheapy. Actually, the circuitry in the recent upgraded HF maintainer is probably better than the Ford OEM one.
Yes, this works great on AGM batteries, just like the Ford OEM one.

https://www.harborfreight.com/12v-automatic-battery-maintainer-59000.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/electrical/electrician-s-tools/multimeters-testers/7-function-digital-multimeter-59434.html

 

[extrap]

Wow, a NINE dollar tender and SIX dollar multimeter! And you say they actually work .. that's amazing.

 

[HighHP]

Wow, a NINE dollar tender and SIX dollar multimeter! And you say they actually work .. that's amazing.

Yes. I definitely believe in "You Get What You Pay For" but in this case, for this application, these work great. Use the multi-meter in conjunction with the charger. You will see it controlling the voltage as a trickle charger should.

 

[twobjshelbys]

Radio shack. 17.95 probably 45 years ago. I got itvwhen I got tired of having to plug in the heathkit vtvm. Thought about getting a digital one 25 years ago, a really nice Fluke from the supplier we bought from at work. But this one still does everything I need.

 

[PeteK]

Ditto what HighHP said. Plus this: I prefer this particular HF multimeter for two reasons; (1) it shuts off itself so it doesn't waste batteries, and (2) the leads and probes neatly wrap around and click into the body of the meter. Yeah, it's more "expensive" at an astronomical $20, but, ya get what ya pay for!

dm300-pocket-sized-digital-multimeter-64018.html

And I still have an old Micronta (Radio Shack brand) multimeter that just won't die.

 

[drilling]

Battery connection complete. I can open doors again!

Using battery tender jr but it is not as good as CTEK but its a pain to go back and install ctek. Can I cut the wire off and connect to ctek terminal? Do some electric hack job?