Fixing broken terminals?

[AggressiveBuggy]

I have a cart in the garage that was flipped over with brand new batteries in it. No I wasn't being stupid...sombody stole a freinds cart. Two of the terminals are bent which are L shaped with the upper half of the L being threaded for a +/- 5/16" bolt to connect the wire. The terminals are lead and I am afraid they will brake if I push them back down so the bottom of the L is flat. Lead softens easy, can they be heated with a hair dryer and pussed back flat?

Also, one of them already broke. The top half of the L broke, but the flat circle (looks like a silver dollar but I beleive is thick and goes down in the battery) is still there. Can I drill into it by 1/2" or so and thread it for a new stud? Other ideas? or is the batter trash?

[shadowman]

with the right screw you can mount the battery cable on that flat silver dollar area, its done all the time you just need to get a screw thats gonna stay tight there.....................................

[AggressiveBuggy]

Well right now it'd be like screwing a screw into a quarter literally. I'd have to drill a hole and tap it unless I can get a replacement. Hmm.. Didn't think about that, but do they make replacement terminals? and how would the old ones come out?

[Boris]

As learned with messing with the softer Aluminum on motorcycle heads .......... If you decide to do something such as drilling and tapping a hole in the terminal ..... Think about putting a threaded insert and then a stud in the tapped hole as opposed to only using a bolt. In the future, every time you are to remove the installed bolt you will remove little bits of the terminal causing the holes to progressively get larger.

You don't want the removable bolt contacting the softer metal at all.

If you use a threaded insert in the terminal itself (first) thats one element that you can locktite into the soft lead. Then if you locktite a stud into that threaded insert itself you get a larger area of "holding " power.

Don't forget the red locktite.

[shadowman]

you can use a heli-coil but don,t drill more than 3/4 of an inch.............................................. ....

[AggressiveBuggy]

Dang, a helicoil is a great idea. 3/4" should be plenty of thread.

Thanks Guys!