Electric pallet jack battery cable issue, need to temporarily fix asap

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Oct 8, 2012
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Ontario, Canada
Helping out my father who has a Hyster electric pallet jack, I think it's w60z model.
He wanted me to help with adding distilled water to the 4 batteries, which are 6v GC2 model typically used in golf carts as far as my research goes.

After swinging the first battery on its own arm mechanism to get to the one below it like this
[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]


One of the cables connected to the terminal via lug of the top battery broke most likely due to corrosion(I also saw ppl mention golf cart cables have the same issue)
The cable is marked as 6 AWG or 6-gauge, which is also typical for golf carts.
[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]


Would it be ok to get a 4-gauge car battery cable like these? I cannot find 6-gauge cable at least not searchable within the hardware stores around me and I want to avoid crimping the lug if possible due to lack of crimping tool.
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-top-post-battery-cable-4-gauge-0110931p.html#srp
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/...-battery-cable-4-gauge-0110961p.html#srp

My father needs it in about 9 hours from now to unload pallets and I was thinking of heading to hardware stores to grab supplies in the early morning and fix it up before heading to work myself.
Would it be okay to temporarily replace this cable so that the batteries can be in a series again, charge it up and use it for 1 day?
Do I need to replace the other cable to the same battery with 4-gauge as well or just replace the bad one is fine and won't cause issue?
 
You can certainly get it working with that, but that one end, is stamped steel with a hole drilled through it. They rust, and are pretty resistive even when new, and sae 4 gauge is 6 to 12% thinner than 6 AWG.

If copper earns a score of 100 on electrical conductivity, steel is down around 10.

http://eddy-current.com/conductivity-of-metals-sorted-by-resistivity/



The other series connections could be as fragile. Ideally, when you have time some time and $ to do it right, ...

http://www.genuinedealz.com/custom-cables

[Linked Image from genuinedealz.com]


You do not want stranding visible. Your broken ring terminal was quick and dirtily done. Proper cable termination requires proper tool$ product, and technique.

Proper can be taken to extremes.



https://marinehowto.com/making-your-own-battery-cables/

What you can get away with, is subjective.

Good luck
 
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Get a copper lug connector with a screw on the top. Clean up the end of that cable good so it can make a good connection.
 
Originally Posted by wrcsixeight
You can certainly get it working with that, but that one end, is stamped steel with a hole drilled through it. They rust, and are pretty resistive even when new, and sae 4 gauge is 6 to 12% thinner than 6 AWG.

If copper earns a score of 100 on electrical conductivity, steel is down around 10.

http://eddy-current.com/conductivity-of-metals-sorted-by-resistivity/



The other series connections could be as fragile. Ideally, when you have time some time and $ to do it right, ...

http://www.genuinedealz.com/custom-cables

[Linked Image from genuinedealz.com]


You do not want stranding visible. Your broken ring terminal was quick and dirtily done. Proper cable termination requires proper tool$ product, and technique.

Proper can be taken to extremes.



https://marinehowto.com/making-your-own-battery-cables/

What you can get away with, is subjective.

Good luck


Thanks for the info.
The cable is from factory and the other ones look to be in better shape. I will still try and find a 6-gauge cable, but it's more of a time constraint thing.
 
Originally Posted by vwmaniaman
Get a copper lug connector with a screw on the top. Clean up the end of that cable good so it can make a good connection.


So far I only found crimp or solder style lugs on hardware website like this
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-copper-lug-terminal-4-gauge-0111078p.html

Can you show me a pic of the style you're referring to?
I assume the screw will be used to crimp. The rest of the cable? The cable is actually quite tight fit and if I try to add a lug to it after cutting off the blue sleeve portion, it will not likely be able to reach the terminal anymore.

Only this cable seem to be this tight based on routing.
 
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There's no problem replacing a 6 ga cable with 4 ga since more conductor is better anyway (wire gauge is like shotgun bore or golf score, lower number is more). If the existing cable ends up too short to put a new terminal on, make up a new cable with two screw on terminals.

You keep saying golf cart which hints what sort of local dealer may have these items.
 
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A 4awg cable is HEAVIER than 6Awg. The lower the AWG,the Heavier the cable. Also that crimp on lug shown is NOT steel, it's tinned copper.
grin2.gif
 
The only issue I see is metal fatigue the next time you swing those batteries out.

These connections are never great-- one gets stress points just beyond the lugs, and corrosion makes it worse, as you see.
 
Originally Posted by mk378
There's no problem replacing a 6 ga cable with 4 ga since more conductor is better anyway (wire gauge is like shotgun bore or golf score, lower number is more). If the existing cable ends up too short to put a new terminal on, make up a new cable with two screw on terminals.

You keep saying golf cart which hints what sort of local dealer may have these items.


Originally Posted by andyd
A 4awg cable is HEAVIER than 6Awg. The lower the AWG,the Heavier the cable. Also that crimp on lug shown is NOT steel, it's tinned copper.
grin2.gif





Thanks guys.
Do I need a pair? Or just one cable is ok for time being?
 
Originally Posted by eljefino
The only issue I see is metal fatigue the next time you swing those batteries out.

These connections are never great-- one gets stress points just beyond the lugs, and corrosion makes it worse, as you see.


It's mostly due to the routing and I had to swing this battery a full 90 degrees to get full access to the bottom battery to add water. Bad timing
frown.gif
 
In the future, disconnect that lug before swinging the battery all the way out (or moving it at all, if you can reach it). If you replace the cable make one long enough to have a loop over the top of the battery and come back to the terminal, then the loop will take up the flex of moving the battery.

Having it short and clamped to the frame like it is isn't helping.
 
A 4 gauge cable is thicker than 6 gauge, if it fits and is flexible enough is could easily be a suitable permanent fix.
 
> Do I need to replace the other cable to the same battery with 4-gauge as well or just replace the bad one is fine and won't cause issue?

It's fine to replace just one 6GA cable with one 4GA cable.
In fact, once you buy it and are trying to install it you'll probably be thankful to only have to do one, as the thicker cable will
be more of a pain than the original one to bend and route in the same place as the original.
 
If you used your head should have fixed it without wasting your time and others with a thread.
Get two washers, split the cable 1 inch or more, put one washer on the stud, sandwich the stud, zip tie the cable on both sides of the stud so it doesn't spread, now the other washer and nut. Get back to work.
 
I am not sure why somebody said 4 gauge is smaller than 6 gauge?

For all practical purposes, what you want to do is fine.
The objective is to get the battery hooked up to a machine.
Not perfecting electrical current flow into a scientific gadget for experiment.

Go to a part store, they usually sells a copper lug to be crimped into existing cable assuming it has enough length.
I have used a locking plier used to pinch hoses as crimping tool and it works fine.
Get some heatshrink to cover the connection crimp.
 
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Originally Posted by IMSA_Racing_Fan
If you used your head should have fixed it without wasting your time and others with a thread.
Get two washers, split the cable 1 inch or more, put one washer on the stud, sandwich the stud, zip tie the cable on both sides of the stud so it doesn't spread, now the other washer and nut. Get back to work.



That was sort of the last resort that I had in mind to at least have a decent connection to the stud.
However, if I can fix it with more permanent solution, that would be more preferred as I am not always there to help my father on this.

I picked up a longer 4-gauge cable and route it so there is more slack for the top battery to swing out. It's charging as I am writing this.
 
Originally Posted by JMJNet
I am not sure why somebody said 4 gauge is smaller than 6 gauge?

For all practical purposes, what you want to do is fine.
The objective is to get the battery hooked up to a machine.
Not perfecting electrical current flow into a scientific gadget for experiment.

Go to a part store, they usually sells a copper lug to be crimped into existing cable assuming it has enough length.
I have used a locking plier used to pinch hoses as crimping tool and it works fine.
Get some heatshrink to cover the connection crimp.


Yah, I got confused a bit by the gauge statement earlier as even jumpstart cables, you want smaller number gauge as possible as it's thicker.
Anyways, rather than spending time and trial to crimp the old cable which is not long enough.
I just got this cable with 8 inches more length so there is enough slack. https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-switch-to-starter-battery-cable-4-gauge-0110961p.html
Now I know how to fix this thing if other connections also breakdown.
 
If I was in a hurry to fix that, I'd remove the remainder of the broken terminal, clean the wire (or cut off the corroded portion), and use a piece of copper plumbing pipe. Crimp and/or solder it onto the wire, cinch the end flat and drill the appropriate sized hole.

Later when you're not in a hurry (if ever, this could last a long time), put the proper terminal on.
 
That Motomaster switch to starter cable you bought, has the steel ring terminals. Bust out a magnet.

The oversized Picture I posted, sorry, is of a thick wall tinned copper Lug, and is a much much better connector that the terminals which come on that motomaster cable.

I've employed similar auto parts store cables in the past. One of them was in parallel with another cable, the same gauge and length but it had tinned copper lugs. 75% of the current chose to flow through the cable with the tinned copper lugs, and when I cut the steel ones off, and hydraulically crimped on proper lugs these parallel cables shared current equally.

Auto parts store premade cables are often these SAE gauge wire with steel ring terminals. buyer be aware.
 
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