very hot -battery cable

   / very hot -battery cable #1  

calfal

Member
Joined
May 31, 2012
Messages
40
Location
lake charles,la.
Tractor
kubota l275 power king 14/24 kioti ck27
hi all,, I have a older L275 Kubota ,,I replaced the alternator yesterday took the tractor for a ride also washed it at a pond,,drove it back to the parking spot,,about 2 hours later went to start it and the start would just click...I know the battery is good because I checked it after installing alt...any way I noticed the - battery cable was extremely hot..any body have any idea what is going on? it always cranked fine before is this a sign of a bad starter? your thoughts please...
 
   / very hot -battery cable #3  
Ditto what ruffdog stated
 
   / very hot -battery cable #4  
Internal corrosion (invisible) in cable will cause resistance, resistance causes heat... Might be easier (less expensive ) to replace cable to see if it solves problem... IF it does not solve problem, then yes its probably starter...
 
   / very hot -battery cable #5  
If you got water in the starter and drain hole is plugged, can be a short situation. Ive had them go bad job at from condensation. I've had them last a long time because I took apart and cleaned it up.
 
   / very hot -battery cable #6  
A battery cable gets hot when the conductor inside the cable is carrying more amperage than the conductor can radiate away as heat. BTW, "current" and "amperage" are words that mean exactly the same thing. I don't know why we have two words for the same thing, both mean the QUANTITY of electricity that is being moved through the cable - just like voltage means the INTENSITY of the electricity. Because large cables are physicaly bigger, larger cables can radiate more heat and so they can carry more amperage without overheating.

For the L275, we can assume it worked fine and didn't overheat the cable before, so something new is causing the battery cable to carry more amperage than it should. It could either be that the cable itself is corroded inside the insulation so that there is actually less copper cable in there than there once was. In that case, the whole current or amperage to the starter is actually flowing through a smaller wire. I've seen that. Gets hot fast.

The best way I know of to check for cable corrosion is to split the cable insulation longwise for a few inches back from the battery and see if there is a lot of corrosion among the wire strands. If not, you can just tape the insulation back into place and no harm done. BUT, if there is a lot of white and green powder in there, then that powder used to be copper wire and the battery cable needs replacing.

BTW, cable corrosion happens with the old "wet cell" type lead/acid batteries with the water caps. It doesn't happen at all with newer AGM type lead/acid batteries.

If the cable looks good, then the only thing left is that the starter itself is drawing more current or amperage. In that case, the starter is probably getting hot too, and it won't last long. The cure for that is either rebuild the starter or replace it.
Best of luck,
rScotty
 
   / very hot -battery cable #7  
The starter in my450c dozer was going out and the cable attached to the starter was getting quite hot.
Reman starter solved it; along with easy starting once again.
 
   / very hot -battery cable #8  
Whatever it is - fix it!

Last summer, my JD X740 was parked in my airplane hangar, along with all my other toys. Whatever the fault with the X740 was, it spontaneously ignited at 4AM, and burned down everything. Don't "tolerate" electrical faults!
 
   / very hot -battery cable #9  
Please disconnect the alternator that you just installed If you haven’t done so or the tractor has been engulfed flames by now. Something is wrong with the alternator install that is creating a dead short.
 
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   / very hot -battery cable #10  
Whatever it is - fix it!

Last summer, my JD X740 was parked in my airplane hangar, along with all my other toys. Whatever the fault with the X740 was, it spontaneously ignited at 4AM, and burned down everything. Don't "tolerate" electrical faults!

Wow... sorry to hear that. The solution is a battery disconnect switch. It's common in some things. In fact, it would be rare to find a boat that doesn't have one. It's basic safety and common sense.

But tractors, cars, and trucks rarely have them because they are not operator convenient.

I'm no better. Our boats always had battery disconnects, and so does our camper and commercial equipment. But none of our cars do. And half the tractors don't. Maybe I should make that next year's project.... to put a manual battery disconnect switch on everything.

rScotty
 
 
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