Removing the second battery cables

[Cougar281]

Since there isn't a 'generic' Technical section, I figured this was probably the best place to put this....

It's been a long time since I've dug into my truck, so I don't remember how the cables for the second battery are routed. How much trouble would it be to remove the cables for the second battery? I would MUCH prefer to be able to put them back if I ever needed/wanted, but I just replaced my dead optima with a Die Hard Platinum, and it's starting with NO problem with the one battery - way better than it did with the single optima. Maybe even better than with two optimas. So I'm considering pulling the cables. I would rather not leave them zip tied in place if they can be removed 'fairly' easily.

 

[clrussell]

I don't think there's any easy way to remove the positive one without cutting.. But it's been a while since I did mine

 

[Cougar281]

Where does the second cable go? To the starter? If so, even if cut, a new copper eyelett could probably be attached if cut off...

 

[Dallas S]

The two wires are crimped together at the starter. Easy enough to delete one of the leads

 

[duratothemax]

Dave I would leave the second battery in. Yes, they start fine on one battery. Even in the extreme cold of below zero temperatures, I never had a problem with my truck starting on one battery.

HOWEVER...its incredibly hard on the battery, just running one in the winter. After two cold winters of running one battery on my truck, it was trashed. So I got two new batteries and put the second one back on.

Ben

 

[thunder550]

Positive cables are crimped together at the starter, that's the only place the two sets attach together.

 

[Cougar281]

Dave I would leave the second battery in. Yes, they start fine on one battery. Even in the extreme cold of below zero temperatures, I never had a problem with my truck starting on one battery.

HOWEVER...its incredibly hard on the battery, just running one in the winter. After two cold winters of running one battery on my truck, it was trashed. So I got two new batteries and put the second one back on.

Ben

Well, the thing there is I'm assuming that at the time, your truck was your primary driver and was started a lot - I'm guessing several times a week every week from dead cold. I don't drive my truck NEARLY as much as I did. My CTS is my daily driver now, so I'd guess the amount of abuse your battery took if translated over to my truck at it's current usage would be probably five years of starts or more. I don't know what battery you had, but the one I have is basically an Odyssey Extreme. Considering hte infrequency of starts, if I were to keep it on a maintainer, I suspect it would not be an issue.

It would be nice if the wiring was like that of the LMMs.