battery terminal

[huntingcart2393]

Alright guys i need help on a problem today.

I was riding my club car ds 48v off and on for a good while when i noticed some a burning smell. I went to the house and saw a cable was starting to melt. so i went to unscrew the cables from the battery and the terminal just came off. the batteries my golf cart takes are almost $200 i would really like to know why this happened. Is it from riding for a while? or what?????????

[scottyb]

Most likely this is from the cable becoming loose on the terminal. Your battery dealer may have somebody who can fix it for you.

[sunoco]

X2 loose connection. What battery do you take thats 200/ea?

[huntingcart2393]

interstate battery 12v class 31 i think on interstates website they are like $355

[scottyb]

JohnnieB forwarded me some interesting data from Trojan Battery. They have a lot of good info on their website and if you send them questions they send you more

The information he sent to me contained some infrared photographs of battery terminals under load. They had made a comparison between a crimped on cable lug and a soldered on cable lug. Their infrared photography was showing how the crimped connection was hotter and was actually raising the temperature of the battery post compared to the soldered connection.

Some more food for thought for the never ending debate of cramped versus soldered connections.

[huntingcart2393]

alright so i was able to tap into the base of the terminal and everything is fine i replaced the burnt wire with some 2 gauge wire. well now thats fixed and now i have another connection start to heat up. every time i ride it gets hot and im worried to ride it to long and risk burning another terminal. any answers to why this is happening.

[scottyb]

Can you post good clear pics of the battery & cable connections that are heating up?


Sounds like you are fixing one problem area and the problem is moving to the next point of high resistance.... that can happen.

[huntingcart2393]

well i believe i got it fixed i went to some heavier guage wire and seems to be working fine!

[whizzo]

Originally Posted by scottyb

JohnnieB forwarded me some interesting data from Trojan Battery. They have a lot of good info on their website and if you send them questions they send you more

The information he sent to me contained some infrared photographs of battery terminals under load. They had made a comparison between a crimped on cable lug and a soldered on cable lug. Their infrared photography was showing how the crimped connection was hotter and was actually raising the temperature of the battery post compared to the soldered connection.

Some more food for thought for the never ending debate of cramped versus soldered connections.

On the matter of crimped Vs soldered.
Its an interesting discussion that pops up on just about every forum that has anything to do with electrics from time to time and sparks some spirited discussion.

There have been some very well documented discussion and real tests done on the matter.

IF the lugs are the correct lugs for the cable and crimped with a good quality modern crimper the connections should be 100% conductivity, air tight and nearly welded.

If you try to add solder to such a crimp you will struggle to get any solder into the lug at all.

On the other hand if the the wire is not a snug fit in the lug or the crimper does not produce a 100% 360 deg consolidated barrel for the majority of the length of the lug .....well, ya better get out ya torch and some solder.

personally I have no faith in dimple crimpers, that push a blunt spike into the lug.....it takes no imagination at all to see how these can produce incomplete compression and create a hot spot in the joint.

I am convinced that a hex crimper properly used can produce consistent reliable high conductivity joints.

Either way, with these high current circuits, we need to make sure all the joints are 100%.

If ya got one joint that is dodgy...pretty good chance there are others.

I look at the cart I have just picked up and the cables are all too small and crimped with a dimple crimper....as from the factory...appart from the fact they look dodgy too.

I pick up my order of lugs and 35mm2 cable tomorrow and the poblem will be solved.

cheers