Battery Cable, Not Sure What Gauge it Is

[foxden]

I picked up a battery cable at our local Surplus Marine Store. It is a Yamaha pre-made cable with heavy duty lugs soldered on all ends. It is black insulation with only the word Yamaha and a white line on one of the two leads. I asked the salesman and they didn't know, but guessed 4 gauge. I compared its weight (12 foot twin lead) to a 24 piece of known generic 4 gauge wire and the Yamaha clearly was much heavier.

This surplus store buys up things from local boat builders here in Florida so I don't know if these were custom made cables for some boat or some standard part available from Yamaha since there is no part number or identification.

The cable works great but I wondered if Yamaha makes cables like this in 2 gauge. (Or 3 if such exists) or is it 4 gauge and heavier due to the heavier rubber insulation? It does look bigger in diameter than the Yamaha battery leads on my 90 hp engine.

Would sure like to know what I wound up buying.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Battery Cable, Not Sure What Gauge it Is

Measure the copper diameter, minus the insulation

#2ga Solid is 0.258", Stranded ~0.271

#4ga Solid is 0.204, Stranded ~0.214

If it is under 1/4", it is #4

 

[foxden]

Re: Battery Cable, Not Sure What Gauge it Is

Thanks, that info helps. It definitely looks like 2. Hard to measure since the only exposed wire is at the lug and it's pretty flattened and soldered. The cable is visibly larger (including the insulation) compared to the Yamaha brand cable that runs to the engine. If I knew what gauge the original was I would know that this is a larger gauge.

I am going to say 2 gauge and that I got a bargain.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Battery Cable, Not Sure What Gauge it Is

If you can inspect all of the insulation closely, the gauge is usually printed on, or embossed into, the insulation every foot.
It is often hard to read unless the lighting is just right.
It will often look like 2 AWG 259/26, meaning #2 gauge, constructed from 259 strands of #26 gauge.

 

[seabob4]

Re: Battery Cable, Not Sure What Gauge it Is

Yamaha cable that comes with larger motors is a metric gauge, basically between 4 and 2 GA AWG...

 

[foxden]

Re: Battery Cable, Not Sure What Gauge it Is

That definitely is it then. It's visibly larger than the yamaha brand cable,on my engine and it's 4 gauge. Thank's - mystery solved as far as I'm concerned, I'll call it 3.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Battery Cable, Not Sure What Gauge it Is

That definitely is it then. It's visibly larger than the yamaha brand cable,on my engine and it's 4 gauge. Thanks - mystery solved as far as I'm concerned, I'll call it 3.

Just because it is the middle of winter and we like to get anal around here....

The only Metric Wire Size between 2AWG and 4AWG is is the metric 25mm[SUP]2[/SUP].
It is smaller than 3AWG, which does exist, but is extremely rare.
So technically it would be more like 3.5AWG! ??? :facepalm:

 

[foxden]

Re: Battery Cable, Not Sure What Gauge it Is

It' sunny and relatively warm here in Florida and even the fish are cooperating. Whatever the gauge, 3, 3.5 or 4 - she fires up and runs well. At least for now and I want to keep things that way. I am now considering removing and cleaning the carbs because it's something I never did and thought it might prevent future problems. Currently I am in the balance between leaving things be and staying one step ahead of the game.