Battery Terminal Melted

[mike11374]

I have a 1991 Caravelle with a 4.3L V6 OMC Cobra. While winterizing, my mechanic noticed that the battery terminal was melted. When I asked how that could happen he said it could be from corrosion. Has anyone heard of this or do I have a short or something??? Any help is appreciated.

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: Battery Terminal Melted

That's what usually does it. Loose connections too.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Battery Terminal Melted

Yep willyB has a good point.corrosion creates a bad contact that can cause the terminal to arc when starting the boat.That creates heat and eats away the terminal.Plus the corrosion eats at the lead also..

 

[THE BEEF]

Re: Battery Terminal Melted

At work we do thermo scans on connections.
A loose connection can run real high temps.
High resistance on a connection will pull high amperage
causing heat on a connection :%

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: Battery Terminal Melted

do you have one of those Fluke thermal imagers, Beef?

 

[Bondo]

Re: Battery Terminal Melted

Ayuh,..........

Edit,.......
Donno if this was a double-click, or What.......

New Forum Software coming Soon,.......... Sooner sure would be Better........

 

[Bondo]

Re: Battery Terminal Melted

Ayuh,..........

Corrosion = Resistance = Heat.........

It wouldn't Hurt a thing to Remove,+ Clean, Shiney Clean, All of the Cables,.....
Both Ends,+ Don't forget the Grounds..........

 

[wil7483]

Re: Battery Terminal Melted

I had a loose ground wire and it actually welded the terminal screw to the post and I can't get it off now. Will probably just take a grinder and grind below it. So yeah, a loose wire will certainly do it also.

 

[Gabby]

Re: Battery Terminal Melted

One other possibility could be the gauge of the wire. If a previous owner replaced it with the wrong size that could cause it to overheat as well. Also check for corrosion in the places you can't see, i.e. behind the battery switch if equipped, etc. As part of Spring commissioning I always remove all battery / power cables from the A/B switch, engine, ground, fuel tank, bilge pump, etc and clean them. Then a little dielectric grease before reinstalling wouldn’t hurt.

Good luck.

 

[THE BEEF]

Re: Battery Terminal Melted

The thermo image camera scans we have comes from a company we hire.All I do is open panels for him to scan.
He told me the camera cost about 50 thousand. Just a tad
expensive for me. That camera does show some neat stuff.