Battery cable clamp?

[Bronkomaniak69]

I believe I need to replace the battery in my 2000 Explorer Limited... power drains overnight and quicker during the cold... not a new battery, and lots of clicking with no juice when I turn the key to start... starts right up with my portable jumper charger, but need to fix the problem... want to remove Positive cable from battery terminal, but the cable has a strange kind of cover over the nut at the end of the cable.... don't wanna damage anything, but prying seems to want to mess things up... anyone else experience this? Somewhat embarrassed to ask.... seems simple, but being cautious....thanx

 

[J_C]

If it's what I remember, "roughly" as pictured below, you just use your fingers to press in on that cover on both sides next to the tabs, simultaneously and that'll release it to pop up. If you have arthritis or other problems pressing in the sides hard enough with fingers, then tongue & groove pliers could be used to press there but take care not to mar the plastic too much.

I'm sure the proper way is something more like taking two little flat blade screwdrivers and inserting both in those vertical tabs to pry both out slightly while lifting the cover, but I've never needed to do that.

Remember that old plastic can get brittle, especially cold plastic, so if it were freezing outside I would prefer to get it warmed up a bit before flexing it, though in this case, the cover is not critical and if it broke, it can just flop around without being a problem, or of course a new ones is $10 or less.

If that doesn't work, or you have some different style of aftermarket cover, pictures might help.