Power question & Difficulty of putting new battery cables in?

[beavis195]

How hard is this? When I idle at night with the lights on, the battery meter slowly moves to the left and the lights get dimmer. And after about 30 seconds with each bass hit (I don't have an amp, just a deck) the lights will dim. If I hit the gas though, the battery needle jumps to the middle and the lights are brighter again. We checked the battery last night, it was fine and it was replaced a year ago. I looked at the battery cables and someone has screwed with them because they are cracked where the bolt screws in and when I had to take them off, I had to use plyers on the square side of the bolt so the nut wouldn't turn the bolt, also so I could get the nut off. Plus they don't look in to great of shape. Also, could the battery cables be my problem with the power? Thanks.

 

[beavis195]

bump

 

[COMMOCOZY]

Sounds like your alternator to me.. it is not charging your battery .

 

[corrupt]

Explorers in the years of 91-94, especially have this problem. The stock alterantors are not too hot in these models, but a head unit should not be draining it that bad. On mine, if you roll up/down all teh windows at once, the voltage meter moves too. Check the cables from your alteranator to your battery, and make sure the connections are tight. Also make sure that you have a fully charged battery.

 

[JDraper]

Changing the battery cable out can be a pain, but can be done in about an hour with several beers and bandaids. I got a replacement positive cable for my '92 from Pep Boys for about 28 bucks. It's possible that the cable is the problem (was on my truck), but it's also possible it's the alternator. Some of the auto parts stores will do a charging system check for free. Take it to one of them and let them tell you if the alternator is bad.

If you want to check to see if the cable is bad, check the resistance from the battery end to the starter and accessory ends. It should read in the milliohms scale. If you get a reading over an ohm or so, it's probably shot. The early X battery cables were prone to internal corrosion between the cable and the ends.