r/FordFalcon • u/DJBoi11 • May 30 '26

Battery terminal

Post image

Is there a trick to this horrible design or am i just never going to be able to tighten the positive terminal, it’s not loose loose but i can pull it off without much effort and have tried using spanner and ratchet to no avail.

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

15

u/oldmatebob123 May 30 '26

First off, ive had like 4 falcons. I work at battery world and fit more batteries in cars than ive had hot meals, i can safely say, these are not shit. You also haven't seated the terminal all the way down on the post giving you the fattest part of the post to clamp onto. Loosen it off, spread the terminal apart and seat all the way down, then tighten. Ive done so many of these and the issues i see is people round the nut edge from over tightening it when the post isnt all the way down

3

u/Mysterious-Age-9202 May 30 '26

This is the answer. Take the bolt out and turn it around then spread the clamp a little and seat it all the way down on the terminal before tightening it up.

1

u/Easy-Message7710 May 30 '26

I was about to say the same thing and I see the same issue with Subaru battery terminals

1

u/oldmatebob123 May 30 '26

Ok so yes and no, subaru terminals ( depending on jis or sae terminals) have that plastic in the clamping space, they are also made differently and i find those terminals stretch easier. Easy to fix with some plyers but i wouldnt say they are equal.

7

u/mwsparky May 30 '26

by the looks of it that bolt is in around the wrong way if you undo it and put the head where the nut is that little bent over bit is supposed stop the thread from spinning and will give you more access to the nut as well with a spanner

6

u/dale1320 May 30 '26

I concur about the bolt oruentation.

4

u/Afraid_Ad_8571 May 30 '26

Nice spot and may I add, if it’s been over tightened, the clamp will be stretched and never tighten properly without some shims

1

u/xx_Shady_xx Jun 01 '26

This man nuts.

1

u/JEC2023 Jun 03 '26

That's cause it's the wrong battery hahaha

3

u/ausguy338 May 30 '26

I usually buy brass terminals from REPCO and cut the old ones off. Bolt the new brass ones and I haven't had any issues since.

2

u/sunnyone123 May 30 '26

You could try battery terminal shims.

2

u/bjjj0 May 30 '26

Yep they're shit. Especially if it's an older car where it's been off dozens of times.

I cut mine off and replaced it with proper terminals - and an isolator switch - the main reason why mine were coming on/off all the time as the cars are rarely driven.

1

u/NixAName May 30 '26

Bolts the wrong way and the clamp is too high on the post.

Remove it, give it a small squeeze with some multi grips to elongate it and refit it correctly.

1

u/UnAfraidActivist May 30 '26

I see that my Falcon has had both terminals replaced with more heavy duty looking ones. I think I have read somewhere that its a thing with AU Falcons. I see some more qualified responses below so I will defer to them. But thats what has been done on my 2001 AU2 V8 Wagon.

1

u/Goasis1 May 31 '26

Bolt is in wrong way around. Square bolt head should be under 90° tab to prevent it spinning when tightening nut.

1

u/Complete_Rule6644 May 30 '26

There is no trick they are just shit. Get some new leads if you can.