[85Y]

Just bought my first Caddy. It is in extremely good shape, minus the battery cable and possible bad blower motor, both which I knew about before purchasing.

The positive cable had been cut (original Delco battery probably rotted out the positive post) and someone did a heckuva hack job trying to 'fix' it. Right now, it looks like there are 3 6 gauge wires attached to two different aftermarket sidepost terminals. One runs to the alternator, one runs along the front of the frame to the drivers side (haven't found the termination of that one yet) and the other goes below the engine cover, probably to the starter. Someone used really terrible sidepost connectors on it.

I went down to NAPA and the cable that I ordered, check digit Y, should be here tomorrow, but I want to make sure all the wires are the correct gauge.

Can anyone verify the following:
1) Was there only one positive cable terminal? Right now, with the hacked ends, I have two terminals with a total of 3 6-gauge leads.

2) What are the wire gauge sizes?

3) Have a picture of the original? At least of the first 6"?

With it being as hacked as it is, I want to make sure I get it right. The picture of the NAPA cable looked like it had two heavy leads and a thinner one.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[NitroCaddy]

Sorry, wrong post

 

[addison_ii]

It has 2 positive cables. (or at least my 94 SLS and 95 Bonneville do) I think they went to the double positive to handle increased electrical systems. I will try to find more info for you.

 

[85Y]

gmparts direct shows a few images, but the descriptions/pictures all seem to link to the same cable. If the image is correct, then it looks like the one I ordered *should work. Looks like I need to search a little more. If it works, I'll post up the NAPA pt#. Thanks!

 

[weister42]

Just wondering, does your car run good with the hackjob?

 

[85Y]

It ran ok, but I was not ammused. The test drive went ok, but while I was on the drive, I pulled over and ran the codes through the climate control. There were a lot of codes related to things that would set d/t low voltage, so I knew it was an issue even though it was 'ok'.

On the way home after I bought it, voltage was 11.6 and started going down, so I parked it and checked the cables. The alternator/power wires that had been spliced to a cheap sidepost terminal were making connection on about 3 strands of copper wire out of the 6-gage bundle. The terminal got so hot, I still have a pretty good burn on my fingers 5 days later. I scraped the wires and put them back in the terminal, ran a battery and alternator test after charging the battery, and everything was fine.

I got the cable from NAPA today. It is 3 6-gage wires attached to one sidepost terminal. The quality is excellent and looks OEM. The alternator and starter leads look the correct length. The only thing I am concerned about is the third lead which runs across the frame to the drivers side. I haven't looked to see where it terminates yet, so it could be too short. The length on that wire is just over 6 feet. I'll know here in about an hour.

 

[85Y]

Update: The cable is going to work fine. I was going to cut the new cable and use a 4-gage buttsplice on the original running to the starter, but I figured what the heck. The plenum looked like it would only take about an hour to get off.

Good thing I did it that way. Access to the starter really only took about 25 minutes. I found the four corner plenum bolts had worked themselves loose and the nut on the starter for the 4-gage wire was less than hand-tight.

The wire from NAPA was actually 2-6 gage wires and one 4-gage. Nearly perfect--had to drill the lug one size up for the alternator and have to put the bend in the terminal for the starter, but no biggie on either part.