My battery ground has totally corroded out. There's not enough cable left up top to screw on a replacement battery lug.

Now I've got a 36" batt cable from the auto parts store, but... darn it... the original cable here has the insulation cut off mid-way and a copper clamp wrapped around the core and tied to the frame mid-cable and the end lug goes to the engine.

A standard cable will not do this. Is there any easy way to make this crap work?? So far the best idea seems to be bolting the cable with the bad batt connector to the engine along with the new cable, so we can use the existing mid-cable connection on it.

 

Yeah, nevermind. I did just that and routed a new - from batt to engine and left the old cable in to go from engine to frame. There IS enough room on the bolt.

 

I guess this is a common issue, I just replaced my ground cable also. I went from the ground post to the bolt that mounts the tensioner to the alt. This was a quick fix, I plan to get two short ground cables to both engine and body but plan on keeping the engine ground where I mounted it. I did this for convience and that it is also protected from the weather.

 

Well I am in the same position. I have a 1990 E150 and replaced the ground cable from the battery however mine had no middle ground clamp. It went directly to the starter. Is this correct? Should I ground engine to frame? Starts great BUT now I have a slight miss in the engine that was not there before. Need some advice on how to proceed.