1997 Ford Escort my negative battery cable

GORDO

MEMBER
1997 FORD ESCORT

Electrical problem
1997 Ford Escort 4 cyl Front Wheel Drive Manual

my car died lastnight and had to be towed back to my yard. The negative battery terminal was very corroded which I had assumed was half my prob.
i went to remove the battery cable and the clip on the negative battery terminal just crumbled. My prob is on the actual cable there is attached a small black box of somekind. Very close to battery. There are 2 wires coming out of this box going directly into a bundle of factory wiring.I have no idea of what the box does. Or how to unplug it from the old cable. Or if I could replace the thin battery clip with one made of lead. I am disabled and standing is a prob. However any help or advice about my prob would be greatly appreciaqted and if I can get some advice I would cvertainly mention this site to my friends. I am a 55 yr old disabled man and need my car mobile as soon as I can.

2 Replies

BMRFIXIT

MECHANIC
19,053 POSTS

Need to get new battery terminals and cut the old terminal off
clean all the wires and connected to the new terminal
shouldn't be much
just do it one side at a time if you are to do both terminals
let me know if need more
good luck

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Thursday, March 5th, 2009 AT 6:49 AM

TECHGIRLKYERA

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3 POSTS

I hate that negative terminal on those engines! I had finally come to call the ford escort I owned my own and had to do my own care of the vehicle. The battery was starting to cause corrosion and when I went to clean them terminals off to make the battery last as long as it could, I found that it had eaten part of my positive cable to wear I had to reduce the length significantly to get to good cable and it had rounded out the inside of the terminal connector.

The black box I believe is for accessories of some sort within the vehicle, mine was on an automatic engine, and we never changed the terminal when I went with a duralast battery the terminal was bigger than my interstate so it connected decently enough that I wasn't too worried about dealing with it.

I also had trouble finding the same kind of terminal end, walmart nor autozone had one.

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Thursday, March 12th, 2009 AT 12:05 AM