Question about battery cables

[Silverstreak]

An EZGO cart company finally picked up my cart to do maintenance on last week. They're returning it next week. YAY! They did put a new HD F/R switch on it.
The person I talked to today was in the front office and didn't know the answer for sure. She told me that they replaced my battery cables. I had new batteries put on with new 4 gauge cables a year ago (by a local person). I was trying to understand why they would replace cables that were only 1 year old. Then I watched a couple of really good You Tube videos about golf cart cables and think I got my answer.

Unfortunately, I never took a picture of my 1 year old batteries/cables, but I can remember them as having an area of exposed wires before the lugs. It was probably about 1/4-1/3" of exposed wires between the cable covering and the crimp. Could this be why they changed them?
Just thought I'd ask here before I made up my list of questions for them.
Thanks!

[ab46501]

It is better not to have any exposed wire on the cables before the lugs. Corrosion, dirt and debri can get into the insulation and cause problems.

[simple man]

I'd ask them for your old ones to be returned to you. You can sell them or use them on something else. Many folks out there could use them to put new terminal ends on properly.

[79camaro]

I've had a hell of a time in the past with electrical failures on boat motors due to exposed wires, I imagine the same is true for carts. It's best to keep them sealed.

[DaveTM]

Your old cables had "shrink tube" installed on them after they crimped on the cable ends. Shrink tube is cut to fit the "exposed wire area" and then the tube is slid over that part. Then a heat gun is applied to the shrink tube and it just does exactely what the name implies. The tube shrinks around the exposed wire and around the cable rubber covering.

This does what the above posters have said. It keeps crud, oxygen and stuff that will cause corrosion from happening at the end of your battery wires.

Do as the above have suggested. Call 'em up and tell 'em you want those back. Battery cables should last a minimum of 5 years under heavy use. Usually longer.

Dave

[Gonkulor]

The replaced cables didn't have the shrink tubing on them. But like everyone has said, get your originals back so you can provide material proof to the guy who made them.

So cables and a new HD FNR is turning out to be what all your symptoms were from. Sounds about right and it's been a long time coming. Thou the FNR has been suspect from all along.

I hope they are also doing all of the other maintenance you needed, such as lube, oil change, and topping off all your batteries.

[Silverstreak]

Thanks everyone.
Yes, they've assured me they've done all the other maintenance stuff. We'll see when I get the cart back. The guy who put the last cables on went out of business awhile back. One reason I wanted a good, thorough "physical" on my cart was that this previous guy, although his intentions were good, I'm not sure he knew enough. He installed the light switch clear over on the left side of the dash, sold me tires with rot, etc., etc., so I thought I'd better have it checked out by professionals. (In his defense though, he did replace all of the tires with new ones.......thankfully before he closed his shop and disappeared completely).

I meant to ask the people who fixed it recently, to give me the bad switch assembly, so I could play with it (I don't know much about these things and thought looking at it would teach me), but I forgot and they probably don't have it anymore.

I hope everything looks good when I get it back.
Thanks everyone!