Marvin Holland

Is there a way to remove the OEM battery cable clamps without cutting the cable?

texasprd

Yes, I did this several years ago. If memory serves, I used my Dremel and cutting wheel, and cut the clamp lengthwise with the cable but not actually down into the cable. I stopped just above it and split the clamp off from there (I don't remember exactly how I did that, though). Long sleeve shirt, dust mask, safety glasses are a must since lead ingestion is not desirable. Maybe someone else has a better way.

Are you trying to re-terminate your cables?

Marvin Holland

Yes, will need to replace the clamps due to them beginning to fatigue and crack near the bolts. I just wondered whether the OEM clamps were soldered on. If so, thought there may be a chance of disconnecting completely, heating the clamps with a propane torch to release them. However, your method should work fine too.

Thanks

texasprd

You might be able to heat them enough with a torch to pull the cable out of the terminal. That would probably work as well as my method. I would say look VERY closely for any corrosion on the strands, and consider replacing the cables if you find any. I had mine reterminated, and the shop did not put any heat-shrink over the cable and the terminal barrels. After a few years, I had a lot of corrosion on my cables - enough to cause 2+ volts drop on each cable going from battery to block and starter. To be fair, it did come from both ends, as the original cables didn't have any heat-shrink on the destination end either.

I suggest doing a voltage-drop test to see what condition your cables are in before you go to the trouble of pulling them and cutting of the original terminals

berner

I replaced all 4 of mine this spring with soldered terminals. There was enough cable to cut them off right at the old terminals. Easy to check; just put the new terminals on the batteries and hold the cables up to them before you cut anything.

BTW, the positive cable on the driver's side is bigger than the other three and takes a bigger end. I'm sorry but I forget the sizes.

texasprd

Battery-to-starter is 2/0 (aka. double-ought or two-ought). The stock battery-to-block cables are probably 1/0 (zero-gauge). The battery-to-battery positive cable may be lighter. I believe my original (?) battery-to-battery positive cable was lighter than 1/0 - it was probably a 1ga cable, as it was terminated on the passenger side with a "1/2" terminal (works with 1 or 2 guage cable). The replacement sets I see from Geno's and custombatterycables.com are 2/0 for everything (not counting the wires to body-ground and fuse-box).