How did you connect your battery tender? (side post)

[Crimtide]

So I have a 92 fleetwood with a side post battery.   I am able to get the ring terminals from Battery Tender onto my post, but I cannot connect my post to my battery because of the rubber crimp block next to the ring terminal.    It's a good 1/8" to 1/4" piece of rubber that prohibits the post from lining up to the terminal on the battery.  If you have one you will know what I am talking about. 
 
The alligator clips that came with it are not sized adequately either.  They just fall off after a few seconds.

My goal is to leave the ring terminals in, with the quick disconnect, so I don't have to take my battery out full time, and put it in every time I want to drive it. 

Called Deltran and they were no help, they just told me to go to the auto parts store and buy charging posts.. but that defeats the whole purpose of quick disconnect.

[Dave Shepherd]

You can bend those alligator clips to size.  Or remove the cables and screw in  suitable bolts to make it easy to hookup the clips. Ok didn't realize they had ring terminals, you could get short bolts to attach them to battery as one option.

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

I think you have to flatten out those ring terminals.....If you have to cut them off and reattach a new flatter ring....that could be the way to go.

I'm surprised that Battery Tender doesn't have a terminal that would work with those side posts.

Mike

[dadscad]

LOL, Mike beat me to it. I would cut off the B-T ring fitting and crimp on some that will clear the battery cable post connection. I have those quick connect cables on everything with a battery that I can charge. I like the Batteryminder and Battery Tender brands, they're both good charger-maintainers. David

[Mike Josephic CLC #3877]

I guess I'm having a hard time understanding the
problem here.  I have side terminal Delco and
Interstate batteries and use the Battery Tenders
with the alligator clips on four cars.  I have no
issues with getting them to stay on.  They work
well.  No bending of the clips was needed.

This is what mine look like:
http://products.batterytender.com/Accessories/Alligator-Clips.html

They have the quick disconnect tips on the other side
of the wiring opposite of the clips.

Mike

[76eldo]

Find another full time hot wire and adapt to that with a round connector.  It does not have to connect to the battery.  You can hide the quick connect ina lot of different places.

Brian

[TJ Hopland]

I was going to say the same thing as Brian above.   Even on an older than 80's car you always have the alternator/generator/regulator that would have a battery terminal on it that would work if you want under the hood. 

Actually farther from the battery may be good since it would be further from corrosion and won't possibly effect the quality of the connection at the battery.

[Crimtide]

I think you have to flatten out those ring terminals.....If you have to cut them off and reattach a new flatter ring....that could be the way to go.

I'm surprised that Battery Tender doesn't have a terminal that would work with those side posts.

Mike

thought about that but don't want to void any kind of warranty that comes with the tender.  thanks for adding the picture, that's exactly what I am talking about.  It's crazy big and knocks the alignment of the post with the terminals way off.

[Crimtide]

I guess I'm having a hard time understanding the
problem here.  I have side terminal Delco and
Interstate batteries and use the Battery Tenders
with the alligator clips on four cars.  I have no
issues with getting them to stay on.  They work
well.  No bending of the clips was needed.

This is what mine look like:
http://products.batterytender.com/Accessories/Alligator-Clips.html

They have the quick disconnect tips on the other side
of the wiring opposite of the clips.

Mike

My clips don't look like that, at all.  Those might actually work better than what came in my kit though.  I will try to take pictures later, but what I am saying is, the alligator clips do not stay on, tried 100 different positions and they just slide off.   There is only a small portion of the bolts to clip on to.  Even while clipped and holding them on by hand the tender light flashes indicating a bad connection. 
 
On the 1992, not sure about other years, there is a giant rubber housing that the bolts fit into, between that and the battery itself, the little rubber bumper as seen the picture Mike added above, creates a gap between the battery and the rubber housing around the bolt.  Making it impossible to screw the bolt into the battery.

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

I only use the alligator clips when the batteries are out of the cars.......and when I'm charging a side terminal battery out of the car, I screw in a couple of 5/16" or 3/8" bolts into the battery and put the alligator clips on them.

You gotta figure out the ring terminal attachment to the battery with it in the car, and run the other end of the charging wire out of the front grille of the car.....that way when you plug in, you don't even have to pop the hood.......works for me....

Mike

[Daryl Chesterman]

Sorry that the link I posted earlier had expired.  With this kind of a batter bolt for side terminal batteries, you can use the ring terminals that come with your battery tender.   The NAPA part number is 728221, but this style of terminal bolt is also available at other auto parts stores.  I believe the bolt is made of stainless steel, and NAPA has one made of brass, for just a bit more money.

Daryl Chesterman

[bcroe]

Clip leads are not favored at all here, for long term.  Too easy
to knock loose, connect wrong, or get corroded.  I just wrote
up how I attach maintainers to cars, standby generator, tractor,
and a few other things.  The same setup can be used to power
your timing light and other stuff. 

This harness (complete with fusible link and dirt cover) is
connected to the engine starting battery.  It uses a robust,
polarized, insulated, and very economical EC3 connector from
the hobby people.  The mating half is on my maintainer, also
on my timing light and some other electronics.  Of course my
clip leads are still here and can be plugged onto the maintainer
if necessary.  Other pic shows the standardized connections. 
Bruce Roe

[Crimtide]

Sorry that the link I posted earlier had expired.  With this kind of a batter bolt for side terminal batteries, you can use the ring terminals that come with your battery tender.   The NAPA part number is 728221, but this style of terminal bolt is also available at other auto parts stores.  I believe the bolt is made of stainless steel, and NAPA has one made of brass, for just a bit more money.

Daryl Chesterman

Yeah that won't work on my application.  There is nowhere to put that bolt on.  I'll have to take a pic to show you guys.  I did find something like this 4th picture but this would mean I have to get rid of the original and that's something I don't want to do. 

[Daryl Chesterman]

Your bolts will come out of the cable ends that you have.  After taking the battery cable off of the battery, put a pair of vice grips on the 5/16 head of the bolt and pull and wiggle it as you twist the bolt, and it will come out of the cable end.  What you will be removing looks like the top picture.  Depending on how hard the rubber is surrounding the existing terminal bolts, they might be a little bit difficult to remove, but should be doable.

I'm not sure if the length of the threaded portion in the second picture is long enough for replacing the bolt in the stacked pair of cables in the positive cable.  If not, there is one that has a longer threaded leg on one end than the other, like the third picture.  The description says it is for a pair of stacked cables on a GM truck, so should work.  You would just have to be sure that the bolt didn't bottom out before getting the cables tight, i.e., you might have to cut off the bolt a little bit.  You could compare the length of the bolt you remove to the length of the one in the third picture.  These are all pictures of products that NAPA has, but should be available at most auto parts stores.

2nd picture:  NW 728221
3rd picture:  NW 785128

Daryl Chesterman

[Crimtide]

Your bolts will come out of the cable ends that you have.  After taking the battery cable off of the battery, put a pair of vice grips on the 5/16 head of the bolt and pull and wiggle it as you twist the bolt, and it will come out of the cable end.  What you will be removing looks like the top picture.  Depending on how hard the rubber is surrounding the existing terminal bolts, they might be a little bit difficult to remove, but should be doable.

I'm not sure if the length of the threaded portion in the second picture is long enough for replacing the bolt in the stacked pair of cables in the positive cable.  If not, there is one that has a longer threaded leg on one end than the other, like the third picture.  The description says it is for a pair of stacked cables on a GM truck, so should work.  You would just have to be sure that the bolt didn't bottom out before getting the cables tight, i.e., you might have to cut off the bolt a little bit.  You could compare the length of the bolt you remove to the length of the one in the third picture.  These are all pictures of products that NAPA has, but should be available at most auto parts stores.

2nd picture:  NW 728221
3rd picture:  NW 785128

Daryl Chesterman

Hmm.. Looks like what I would need is something like the last one, with a thread on the head end, but with a wider lip like the first one, so it sits snug in that housing.

[Dan LeBlanc]

Geez.  All I did was cut open the ring terminals, bend them a bit, and reattach the side posts on my 77.  Took less than 10 minutes.

[bcroe]

A battery tender doesn't have to be connected to the battery
posts.  Any good spot on the engine will work for the negative,
and the alternator output or a bat distribution point works for
the positive.  Bruce Roe

[Daryl Chesterman]

[Hmm.. Looks like what I would need is something like the last one, with a thread on the head end, but with a wider lip like the first one, so it sits snug in that housing./quote]

It is not necessary for the bolt to have a wider lip like the OEM bolt has.  Please don't over-think this!  If you want it to look exactly like what it did when it left the factory, you are going to have to connect your maintainer somewhere other than the battery, just as others have posted.  The battery bolts that I pictured will do the job, if you want to use the eyelets on the maintainer quick disconnect.

Daryl Chesterman

[Caddieman53]

My tender has a plug that goes into the cigar lighter socket. Works fine.

[Crimtide]

A battery tender doesn't have to be connected to the battery
posts.  Any good spot on the engine will work for the negative,
and the alternator output or a bat distribution point works for
the positive.  Bruce Roe

I wanted it to be easy on/off if I ever removed it.  So I can connect it to the bolt holding the positive lead to the battery?  On the alternator end?  And the ground from the negative terminal on the body end?