On 8/2/2014 7:58 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
This is relevant to the modern interchangeable parts and output
impedance discussions.

The other day my truck had a no-start problem that turned out to be a
poor cable connection at the battery clamp that I'd missed during an
otherwise thorough spring electrical cleanup. I found it -after- I had
removed, disassembled and thoroughly checked the starter.

The corrosion hidden inside the cable clamp still allowed about 30 -
40 Amps, not enough to spin the starter motor with the Bendix engaged
but the voltages were correct everywhere that was easily accessible,
the solenoid clicked and the battery dropped to 11.5V.

I bought Autozone's solid brass battery terminal to replace the
previous replacement and just found that it's too large for the
negative post and too small for the positive. It would have been a
problem for someone without my collection of blacksmith tools to swage
open the tapered hole and a milling machine to recut the square bolt
head seat at the new angle.

Autozone had a set of combo wrenches for not much more than HF's price
which is a better match to the odd sizes Ford used, like 18mm. This
time the socket set wouldn't get everything. I work on vehicles with
the tool kit kept in them and add to it whatever I had to borrow from
the garage set. Since I've taken almost everything apart already cheap
wrenches are good enough to undo bolts that have been lubed with LPS-3
or Never-Seez. (r)
-jsw


Our old Mercedes Benz 300SD, 1983 model, had brass battery connectors on
the cables. They were good when we bought it in 1993 and still good as
new when we traded it last year. I had to replace the battery twice in
20 years. The battery that was in it when we bought it lasted almost 7
years.

Paul