- Location
- Curtis Bay, MD
Hi all,
apparently the battery is the weak point on my XJ, it's been a problem since before I bought the thing. When I got said XJ, the battery was leaking like mad and had destroyed both battery cables. So I bought a cable kit from Jon Kelley aka 5/90 and a yellow top and also stripped/derusted the hold-down and coated it in plasti-dip. At that point I was thinking that my problems were over...
I've had several problems since. First, the battery will not stay in place in the battery tray and keeps shifting forward and rubbing against the upper radiator hose. Today I decided to fix that; I took a silicone baking sheet and cut it to fit the tray, and also cut out around the temp sensor so it could still poke through. I've used this stuff before to make liners for the recessed areas on the top of the dash of my F*rd pickup; it's great, now I can toss change, wallet, cell etc. up there and not have it fly out the window next time I go around a corner. I am hoping that this will friction-lock the bottom of the battery and the tray together so it won't slide around any more.
I recently had the Jeep in for an A/C service and the guy said something like "your battery cables were real loose, I tightened them up for you." Well they were tight when I installed them! Now I did not use the brass ones from Jon but some lead ones from the parts store, because here's the problem, the brass ones will not fit over the posts and nobody around here sells a battery cable terminal spreader for less than $30 or so! Anyone know a good source for one? Also would like to find a reamer like my buddy has that has good blades on it held at a precise angle to clean up the ID of the brass ones. Haven't seen one anywhere... the one I bought from amazon is shite and won't even touch the brass. The lead ones I used are crap, the bolts holding the cables down to the terminals (I used ones that you'd use to replace the end of an old cable, and just used the two bolts and holes for the connections to the new cables, with copper washers under the heads of the bolts) were loose as well, I probably only have 1500 miles or less on this setup, can't deal with that. So I really need a good spreader and a good reamer so I can use the good brass terminals. (this might explain why last night I noticed that the compass on my rear view mirror kept rebooting while I was driving; I suspected a bad connection where I spliced in power to the radio harness ,but now I'm thinking it all goes back to this mess at the battery that I keep trying to make right and still haven't yet.)
Now here's the worst problem. All I just did was remove the battery for about 10 minutes to cut/install the silicone sheet in the battery tray. Now my heep won't start! It turns over fine, and the dome light is good and bright, but it won't even try to fire. What. The. Hell. I literally parked in in the driveway last night, removed and replaced the battery and did not touch anything else, and it won't start. Any ideas...? This happened to me once before, I left it sit for a while and then never had a problem after that until today. Usually fires right up in 3-4 sec or less.
apparently the battery is the weak point on my XJ, it's been a problem since before I bought the thing. When I got said XJ, the battery was leaking like mad and had destroyed both battery cables. So I bought a cable kit from Jon Kelley aka 5/90 and a yellow top and also stripped/derusted the hold-down and coated it in plasti-dip. At that point I was thinking that my problems were over...
I've had several problems since. First, the battery will not stay in place in the battery tray and keeps shifting forward and rubbing against the upper radiator hose. Today I decided to fix that; I took a silicone baking sheet and cut it to fit the tray, and also cut out around the temp sensor so it could still poke through. I've used this stuff before to make liners for the recessed areas on the top of the dash of my F*rd pickup; it's great, now I can toss change, wallet, cell etc. up there and not have it fly out the window next time I go around a corner. I am hoping that this will friction-lock the bottom of the battery and the tray together so it won't slide around any more.
I recently had the Jeep in for an A/C service and the guy said something like "your battery cables were real loose, I tightened them up for you." Well they were tight when I installed them! Now I did not use the brass ones from Jon but some lead ones from the parts store, because here's the problem, the brass ones will not fit over the posts and nobody around here sells a battery cable terminal spreader for less than $30 or so! Anyone know a good source for one? Also would like to find a reamer like my buddy has that has good blades on it held at a precise angle to clean up the ID of the brass ones. Haven't seen one anywhere... the one I bought from amazon is shite and won't even touch the brass. The lead ones I used are crap, the bolts holding the cables down to the terminals (I used ones that you'd use to replace the end of an old cable, and just used the two bolts and holes for the connections to the new cables, with copper washers under the heads of the bolts) were loose as well, I probably only have 1500 miles or less on this setup, can't deal with that. So I really need a good spreader and a good reamer so I can use the good brass terminals. (this might explain why last night I noticed that the compass on my rear view mirror kept rebooting while I was driving; I suspected a bad connection where I spliced in power to the radio harness ,but now I'm thinking it all goes back to this mess at the battery that I keep trying to make right and still haven't yet.)
Now here's the worst problem. All I just did was remove the battery for about 10 minutes to cut/install the silicone sheet in the battery tray. Now my heep won't start! It turns over fine, and the dome light is good and bright, but it won't even try to fire. What. The. Hell. I literally parked in in the driveway last night, removed and replaced the battery and did not touch anything else, and it won't start. Any ideas...? This happened to me once before, I left it sit for a while and then never had a problem after that until today. Usually fires right up in 3-4 sec or less.
taper specs:
