Hey guys.

I went to start my RX the other day and the starter barely cranked. So I checked the battery voltage gauge and it only showed around 8-10 volts. So I popped the hood and then checked the battery with my volt meter and sure enough I have 12.5-6 volts at the battery temrinals but that power isnt gettting to the starter or the gauge obviously.

My question is how do I determine whether this is a bad ground or bad power lead? Both of the battery terminal connectors are old and crappy and probably could use replacement.

 

Check and clean your terminals and the ends of both battery cables. You can also measure voltage directly at the starter, to see if it matches voltage you measure at the battery.

Power for the gauge comes through the fuse block, while power for the starter comes directly from the battery though the positive battery cable. That would mean that if you have a problem on the positive side, it would be at the battery terminal. The power lead for the main fuse splits off shortly after the terminal.

 

Thanks for the reply. The terminals at the battery are clean the problemis that they are as tight as they can be but they still dont make clamp on securely. I mean they will stay in place but they can be wiggled back and forth and pulled off if you pull hard.

If I was to buy a new ground cable does it just need to go to the engine or does it go to different things? It was hard to see where the ground and postive wires went to without tearing that area down.

 

The ground cable splits off a few times before it makes it to the starter/bell housing. It'll be a big pain to get at if the car has P/S & A/C. I actually just ran a new cable along side the original one, and soldered them both to one terminal.

 

Hi there dont mean to thread jack but I was searching on how to identify the battery cables.

My FC came without a battery so Im not sure what cable is which now...

On nissan (Which is what im used to)black/yellow wire = start. And one of the battery cables has a single BIG black/yellow wire...and theres another with two black wires.

Which one is the positive?? The black/yellow goes to the starter...so I thought thats my positive..

or is it the two black ones?

 

The one with the Yellow Stripe is NEGATIVE..
Do yourself a BIG favor and take some Dollar store electrical tape,and Wrap the "unmarked' lead with RED tape near the connector...then wrap a Couple turns of BLACK tape around the Yellow striped wire near the Battery Connector..Now you will not Get your cables Mixed up any more..Unless you are Color blind!.
If you Talke a Look Under the Car,you are gonna see that actually BOTH wires Do go to the Starter,Sort of...One Wire(Ground,Negative)will lead to the top Starter bolt on the Engine side.The Positive wire will Go to the 12mm Nut on the Starter.(there are two 12mm nuts there,So make sure you put the Wire on the One that is NOT attached to anything else on the Starter.It needs to be the one that is "alone"(insulated from going anywhere else),and has NO metal under it.
NOTE:if you Put the Positive Wire On the Wrong NUT on the Starter it will Pop the main Fuse!..Well,you will KNOW if you put it in the wrong place,let's put it that way.
also.Suggestion,Do not have the Battery Hooked up while you attach wires AT the Starter.it is Plain UNSAFE.