Why Is My Battery Post Hot

JDusza

Ensign
Joined
Apr 21, 2009
Messages
934
I'm putting a rig away for a friend and noticed his battery connection on the negative side is extremely poor. The ring terminal is basically sitting against the post. In addition, I found that when I run the starter the negative battery post gets unbelievably hot. In fact, today I got a pretty good burn off the post.
This is definitely not a good situation. What could be causing this hot terminal?
J
 

GA_Boater

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
May 24, 2011
Messages
49,038
The battery connection. Heat is caused by poor connections. Fix the negative connection and while you're at it, clean the positive side. Probably will fix some other troubles by doing those two things.
 

crb478

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Dec 6, 2006
Messages
1,036
A good tight connection is critical. Heat is a product of resistance, and a loose fit is resistance. Good clean connections will fix it.
 

H20Rat

Vice Admiral
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
5,199
A good tight connection is critical. Heat is a product of resistance, and a loose fit is resistance. Good clean connections will fix it.

I've seen connections get hot enough to actually weld themselves together. Ironically once that happens the problem is fixed! (of course, other times it might burn the entire thing up, luck of the draw.)
 
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