Batboard

I want to replace the original side battery terminal bolts in a Chevy Blazer with terminal adapter bolts. What should be simple is made complicated by the fact that the original GM bolts are captive in the battery cable terminal lugs.

What is the trick to remove the original bolts without damaging the battery cable?

Order GM sidepost extensions. All you do is remove the captive bolt without removing the lug itself from the molded connector. Thread in the extension and it will not only hold the lug in place on the battery post, but will provide a 5/16 or 3/8 bolt for addtional cables.

Tessco and Waytek sells these.

I have the sidepost extensions. The problem is how to remove the original captive bolts without destroying the lug! They will not unscrew from the lug and will not pull out with reasonable force. I don't want to damage the lug.

They should just pop up. You'll need to remove the rubber portion of the lug and then it should come loose.

apco25 wrote:They should just pop up. You'll need to remove the rubber portion of the lug and then it should come loose.

OK, Thanks. I will try that. I did not want to try the proverbial "get a bigger hammer" approach and risk damaging the cable.

May depend on year. On my older GMs the battery bolt is just captive in the plastic that covers the end of the cable. I have had problems with corrosion under/hidden by plastic until vehicle would not start. Solved problem by cutting plastic back and freeing area around terminal.

I'll second that. It's just and easy push up from the bottom to get the bolt out. I'll have to look into the extender bolts. I've been meaning to prepare for a major install in the near future. Anyone had issues using 100A fuses with a second battery in the trunk tied directly to the main battery?

SlimBob wrote:Anyone had issues using 100A fuses with a second battery in the trunk tied directly to the main battery?

I've done that in all of my vehicles including a Chevy S10 and a police-package Caprice, but without the fuses. My thinking behind that was should I ever need to crank the car off the back battery only, the fuses wouldn't hold. I made sure to route the positive wire away from pinch points and hot engine surfaces and never had any problems. Alternator capacity may be an issue depending on the make/model of car, but both my vehicles had 100+ amp alternators and held up fine.

Those terminal bolts can be a pain, but they do come out. Its just the red or black insulation on the terminal that holds them in. If its outside and cold then use a heat gun and warm them up a bit, the insulation is really stiff when cold, and then they will pull right out.

I managed to get them out once by taking the car out and driving it around for an hour running some errand, it was below zero outside and i didn't have a heated shop or garage to stash it in. After the underhood temps got up to normal they were flexible enough to let the bolts come out.

If you have a local marine store, get the nice marine grade ones. Or any local auto electronics or auto stereo shop type place has the nice plated ones that resist corrosion as well. When you get those old bolts out thoroughly clean the connector inside and out before putting all back together. The darn things cause some lousy connections over time.