New owner with some questions, batteries for now!

[la350]

I just purchased via Ebay a '99 3500 Crew cab. Its in great shape, seems to run well, body/interior/etc in very good condition. It has 136K on it and because it came from a dealer, I have no knowledge of any repairs/upgrades.

First off, a little about me. I just transitioned out of a 89 Ford 350 with the 7.3 IDI. I loved the truck but my wife hated the stick shift and any time we had to swap vehicles for the day it caused grief. I added a 3.5" exhaust, Hypermax Turbo, Luk clutch and about 5000.00 of other upgrades and just sold it for 3K. Don't tell the wife!! It was a pulling machine (at least with our 5k travel trailer)and with the 5sp/3.55 rear, it got me about 18/19 mpg. For paying for truck upgrades, the day job has me as a high school counselor and summers are spent in Alaska as a commercial fisherman.

I'm having some issues with the '99. When I went to pick up the truck from the shipping company, it had a 1000 cca Napa Orbital battery and a new wally world 600cca that the dealer had installed. Needless to say, it was a bear to start and I put new standard 1000cca battery in its place. It started fine for two weeks but is now becoming harder to start again. It turns over but sounds slower than normal. I put the charger on last night and it read 5 amps when I hooked into the system and still 5 amps this morning when I checked it. Both batteries measure about 13v with the truck turned off and 14.5v when the truck is running. I will check it again before I start it tomorrow morning to see if voltage dropped over night...... Could having the Orbital battery matched up with the standard battery cause any problems? Any other suggestions on where to look? How do I tell if the starter is dragging a bit?

I just bought a new PMD off ebay for 200.00 I plan to install it either in the grill or on the skid plate. The skid plate may not work as I plan on installing an intercooler over the skid plate as I have a new one off a PSD that I bought for the '89 Ford and never installedt. I also just bought a 3" downpipe from SS Diesel and I'm having a 3.5" exhaust installed this week. I plan on ordering the Heath upgrade kit with the Torque Master and Ecu in the next week or so also.

Lance

[Hubert]

Simple to check but somewhat tedious.

Double check the side post terminals they may have loosened. The passengers side positive post has a spacer that needs to be cleaned both sides and monitored for tightness periodically. Mine has loosened on me a few times. Grounds can be problematic too check both ends both batteries.

There is a side post upgrade tech tip on the page here. Basically you stud the battery and use nuts to tighten cables terminals.

[a5150nut]

In addition to what Hubert said, there are also some ground connections on the right rear of the engine. All grounds need to be cleaned and checked ever so often. The stainlees steel bolt upgrade for the battery terminal is a good one. You might also give a close look to the battery cables for swelling under the insulation. This would be a sign of corrosion growing in the strands of the cable and they would need replacing. With a little tlc these trucks do a good reliable job of pulling. You have come to the right place for help. And Welcome to TDP. You will get to know the regulars arrond here and can rely on their wisdom.

[DA BIG ONE]

Go to members area and find the terminal bolt mod which uses 9/16" SS bolts, washers & nuts to replace the stock terminal bolts.

Clean all the cable terminal ends w/products made for cleaning them or use baking soda to do it but make sure you have the batteries out and away from the baking soda as it can and will damage them if it enters cell/cells..

Perhaps, cleaning metal surfaces in about area of battery trays is needed too.

[Robyn]

Glad you are happy with your truck deal.
I have purchased two rigs off ebay and two off craigs Lists.

The battery cables on the rigs are good for about 5 years max even when cared for.
The cable ends are soldered on but only a skim around the outside of the cable.
The core will corode and then the power loss become horific and what you are seeing happens.

First off a set of Optima heavy hitter jello batteries is a great choice. (1000CCA)

A complete new set of GM cables is a step in the right direction and or build a new set of cables using 00 welding cable with soldered copper ends and use the top terminal posts that are on the optima's

The ground cables are notorious for going south where they bolt to the block up top.

Another little helper is to install a Ford starter relay over by the pass side battery and route the wire that normally runs the solenoid on the starter up to run the relay and then power the solenoid with full battery power.
This takes a big load off the ignition switch and makes the starters last a lot longer.

If the power to the solenoid drops off (and it does over time) the amp draw to power the solenoid goes way up and then PoooooooooooF the solenoid cant handle it and the starter enters "THE CRISPY ZONE"

The little gear drive starters on these engines uses a solenoid with two sets of windings, the first set pulls the unit in and once in the second set holds it as the first is released.

When the system starts getting tired the solenoid will not pull in hard enough to avoid a lot of arcing at the heavy contacts and soon they become badly carboned up and from this point its a short time until the starter goes away.

These starters are not nearly as heavily wound as the old direct drive units and need to be given every chance at survival possible.

Hope this helps

Robyn

[DmaxMaverick]

Go to members area and find the terminal bolt mod which uses 9/16" SS bolts, washers & nuts to replace the stock terminal bolts......


The threads are 3/8"-16 (coarse). The bolt head and nut will usually be 9/16", though.

[JohnC]

Go to members area and find the terminal bolt mod which uses 9/16" SS bolts, washers & nuts to replace the stock terminal bolts......


The threads are 3/8"-16 (coarse). The bolt head and nut will usually be 9/16", though.

Reminds me of a humorous torque wrench story...

[tommac95]

Not to be a pia but....

Stainless steel is not the best choice for current-carrying. It has a very high resistance (close to nichrome).

Will be OK on the sideposts though .

Some (including me) use brass studs on the batts. Smearing synthetic grease on the connections excludes water/moisture/acid-fumes , and greatly decreases corrosion extent/MTBF.

[DmaxMaverick]

Not to be a pia but....

Stainless steel is not the best choice for current-carrying. It has a very high resistance (close to nichrome).....

Absolutely correct. However, using SS bolts/nuts is a good idea for the battery terminals. The bolts and nuts don't contribute much to current load, but clamping force. The nut tightens the cable ends against the battery terminal, where the current load is happening. Using SS reduces the corrosion factor, which is a real problem for this application. Using the bolt as a stud and tightening the nut allows much more clamping force than with brass or copper, or by turning a bolt to use for tightening. The same principal applies to head studs, by not relying on the threads in the block for clamping force while torqued. It takes much more force to pull a thread than to strip it by turning a bolt into it.

[DA BIG ONE]

Reminds me of a humorous torque wrench story...

Suffer from sometimers.

[JohnC]

Stainless may not corrode but it does so (does not do so?) at the expense of the other party. In any dissimilar metal relationship, the tendency for corrosion depends in part on the difference between the two metals as defined by the galvanic table. Metals at opposite ends of the table will cause corrosion and metals that have the same position will not. Also, one metal will always corrodes and the other does not.

Stainless is at the far end of the "doesn't corrode" end of the table. The only thing that won't corrode in the presence of Stainless is more stainless.

Another way to prevent corrosion, irrespective of the metals involved, is to exclude moisture, hence, a glob of grease works better than stainless (or any other type of metal) bolts...