Red Top Battery
- Thread starter pontiacgp
- Start date
- Status
when I had a problem with my XS battery they were very helpful when I contacted the company. They made me a good offer but a friend of mine with a boat bought it from me knowing it had a problem. He said he could fix it...
It actually makes sense that connection was the problem cause it's in the area of my distributor which I have changed the same day this problem coped up. Since it just seem to happen for no reason I suspected the Red Top right away since I am aware of it's reputation to suddenly go bad.
was I thinking. The problem cropped up again yesterday even though the GP started in the morning when it was about 14°F. I took the battery out and charged it overnite just to make sure. Put the battery in this morning and it still acted like a dead battery. The SS ps hose heated up again and then it dawned on me. My age must be affecting my logical thinking, the fkin SS hose was trying to ground the engine. I got the battery booster out of the trunk and hooked the power side up to the solenoid and the ground on the engine and voila the engine turned over.....all of this was over a bad ground so I took off the 4 gauge ground cables and cleaned the contact points and now it's fixed, I cleaned those contact point in the spring like I always do each year so it's surprising that the grounds failed......me and my theories made it much more complicated than it is. Now I need a beer or two....maybe 3....🙂I always use die-eletric grease on my ground and power connections to negate this issue. I also 4 or 0 gauge for starter power cable and 4 gauge for my grounds. 8 gauge is way too light duty for powering starter.
Last edited:
Who said they are using 8 gauge for their starter cable? I don't use any grease on the grounds, grease will attract dirt and the grease will get washed off when I wash the engine compartment
I'm going 1/0 from the rear split to 4 under the hood. I think Optima batteries are fine. I already use XS on my solar set up so already had the relationship plus they had a form factor that x 2 met my size requirements on my power shelf behind the rear seat. Most think it is completely unnecessary [I would argue just unnecessary - completely unnecessary, not so much] but I run dedicated 1/0 ground all the way back to the rear too. I just want to control the path completely and though I ground the frame, especially on the higher current stuff, you do often run into those "flaky" ground connection problems.
What I plan to do this winter is to weld ground studs instead of the bolts tapped into the frame, I have one 4 gauge from the battery in the trunk on the ledge through the sheet metal to the frame and another 4 gauge to the body from the battery. In the engine compartment I have a 4 gauge from the frame to the engine and another 4 gauge to the body. First time in 5 summers that I have had a problem
I am running an Optima staggered cell yellow top battery in the trunk (15 years now) and 1/0 fine strand welding cable up to the remote solenoid and a 1/0 down to the starter.
I also have two 1/0 accessory ports, one goes to the front of the car that powers relays for fans, water pump etc and gives power when using a timing light, and the other one is in my passenger side kick panel that powers two 12 circuit fuse panels in the dash.
My DC Power 180 amp alternator also has a 1/0 going to it (recommended by them).
For grounds I up sized the factory ones and probably added a half dozen or more 1/0 grounds to the frame and sheet metal between the trunk and engine compartment.
The best part is the voltage drop from the battery to the alternator to the accessory is almost non existent and even if I turn on every power accessory while sitting at idle I still have just above 14 volts at my gauge.
I also have two 1/0 accessory ports, one goes to the front of the car that powers relays for fans, water pump etc and gives power when using a timing light, and the other one is in my passenger side kick panel that powers two 12 circuit fuse panels in the dash.
My DC Power 180 amp alternator also has a 1/0 going to it (recommended by them).
For grounds I up sized the factory ones and probably added a half dozen or more 1/0 grounds to the frame and sheet metal between the trunk and engine compartment.
The best part is the voltage drop from the battery to the alternator to the accessory is almost non existent and even if I turn on every power accessory while sitting at idle I still have just above 14 volts at my gauge.
- Status
Similar threads
