Another melted terminal saga

[BGoat]

The old DS that I have been working on came with some melted posts on two of the batteries. The previous owner had already did the "drill and tap" repair on the terminals. Needless to say, he buggered them up too. I have great gobs of Heli-coils. Could drilling the existing holes larger and installing Heli-coils work and hold up over time?
You should have seen the wiring on this cart, disgusting. One of the leads to the motor had the terminal replaced.... with a piece of 3/8" copper tubing flattened out and drilled to fit the motor stud.

[NoleFan4Ever]

A helicoil could work, but not for long term as I think you are pushing your luck on dependability if that much of the lead base has been damaged.

[BGoat]

Well, I'm going to try it anyway. It will either work or it won't. I don't have a whole lot to lose.

[swm63]

If that battery catches fire you may lose more than you bargained for...

[E36Racer]

I would use the helicoil. Just put a very small drop of red loctite on it when you install. I mean VERY small, like a broken #2 pencil tip. That way it will hold it but not impact conductivity. I don’t know why people are against helicoils to fix melted terminals aside from having to drill the hole larger than you would just for a bolt. I’ve used them to fix cam studs in aluminum heads on cars and never had a failure


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JR_ECE]

My cart came with Trojan batteries with one fouled terminal. Apparently the previous owner overtightened or croasthreaded it. I noticed the terminal was a little loose after a few weeks of owning it and the cart quit. Upon turning the nut I learned it wasn't tightening but rather spinning in place. I cut the stud off to remove the cables, and then used a $3 marine battery adapter from Autozone on the stud base. On my batteries there is enough base to be just about flush with the top of the top of the adapter. Reinstalled cables and nut. Done. I'll bet others have done the same on here.

Hopefully you'll have enough stud base to use an adapter.

[passthru]

I actually put a clamp around the top of the melted terminal with most of the clamp sticking above the melted top. I melted and poured lead into it. I worked great. I dressed the top of it smooth, installed the battery and it's working fine. I have learned to check the tightness of the lugs regularly though.

[BGoat]

Melting new lead is the next step after the heli-coil. I've used plenty of heli-coils before without issues, so I fail to see how the cart will catch fire by using them.

[BGoat]

I finally got back to work on my " trying to save it from the junkyard" cart. I'm a manager of a grain elevator, so August until mid December is pretty busy, with long hours. I also had a stroke on December 11th, so that didn't help. I ended up drilling the boogered up terminals and taking them to 3/8-16. Everything worked out well there. Been rotating my battery charger around each battery since I got the cart. Batteries were questionable when I got it, despite only being a year and a half old. I was able to take a short ride while ago, but don't want to discharge the batteries too much before getting a good charge on them. Hooked up cart charger, getting 44 volts to battery bank. We'll see how it goes after a full charge. I did find another problem to work on though. The right front wheel has a squeaky bearing. One thing at a time I guess.

[buckmeister2]

One of the reasons terminals melt is because the connections are not as tight as they should be, leading to arcing, which leads to melting, or welding of terminals and cables.

Keep the post clean, and the connections tight, and you should not have any problems with melting terminals, with the exception of issues aside from batteries and cables.