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Old 09-25-2017, 01:54 AM   #8
Curtb1971
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Erie Colorado
Posts: 1,031
Re: How do you clean battery cable wires?

Quote:
Originally Posted by 70CHEVYBB View Post
You can not clean that out. You need to replace them. The corrosion will continue on and its way farther down the cable than you can see
Pretty much this right here. I re-wired my buddies flats skiff boat last year before we went down on annual fishing trip to the keys and ran into this. I replaced all the battery cables with marine grade cables and solder flux core lugs except the trolling motor load cables off the battery bank. I had to make a solder connection on the cable and each individual strand had corrosion like what your describing (probably worse/saltwater) and it wouldn't hold solder because I was running out of time and couldn't get the right cable before we left. In the pinch I was in the solution was CLR and a wire brush wheel on a drill, but I had easy access to the cable end because it didn't have a lug on it. You might try soak in it in some CLR but agian I'd suggest replacing because you'll have corrosion under the insulation that you can't see. When we got back and I could replace the cable I took a knife to the outer jacket and stripped the cable for scrap. Out of the 15ft cable the corrosion went back heavly 5ft and minor for another 5ft. Just kept creeping.
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