Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:45:06 +0000 (UTC) From: Craig's Saab C900 Site <c900nospam.apana.org.au> Subject: Re: Alternator to Starter Cabling?
"LC" <goalie22nospamail.com> writes: >I've made one with 4gauge cable from the local home depot. However, the >starter is pretty hot near where the cable is. I've made sure both ends are >tighened down really good. I recently replaced the main positive cable when I was trying to solve the problem with the starter in my 1983 900S 'sticking'. I tracked down that the thermo-time switch is allowing current to leak into the wire to the starter relay coil but getting back to the positive cable... What I did was buy some heatshrink tubing the right size (about 3/4" or 18 mm diameter) and pushed a length of that over the lug that bolts to the starter solenoid. It doesn't give a lot of heat protection but what it does do is shrink just from the radiated heat off the engine (and in my 8V engine's case, heat from the exhaust manifold too), and that has now almost fully shrunk down over the back of the lug and the start of the cable itself. It isn't going to form any sort of hermetic seal, but it'll assist the cable's insulation to protect the copper at the end where it's most susceptible to damage from contaminants and heat as well to some extent. >I checked with SAAB, and the replacement cable.. and no i'm not kidding was >$70.00 (US). This little piece of shit 14 inch cable.. Crazy eh? The original positive lead in my car (not sure if was Saab-OEM or even original equipment) was braided with some sort of polymer braiding which was absorbing every spec of oil and any other penetrating liquid that might come along! >any ideas? My buddy said if the cable is hot on an end, the connection is >bad. So I'm going on that line of thinking... but I can't be completely >sure. That's definitely a good indicator that there is possibly a high-resistance connection as the resistance of a connection determines how much it blocks current flow (and this is what creates the heating as it's the same effect as a bar radiator). High-current connections make this more problematic since higher current means more power (volts x amps = watts since it's a simple DC system) and more watts means more heating as the connection resistance increases. So even a small increase in resistance with a very high current can cause a big heating effect. Regards, Craig. -- Craig's Saab C900 Page --> http://nospam/~c900 Sydney, NSW Australia Craig's Saab C900 Workshop -- For all Saab C900 Enthusiasts world-wide! http://www.nospam.net http://www.nospam c900nospam.apana.org.au Come and explore our site, and check out our web-forums, mailing list, etc.
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