Quote Originally Posted by Jas View Post
HELP!!! I have a 1966 Ford F-100, I've been adjusting the fuel-air mixture on the carburetor. Ran the battery down, Tested it found out it is bad, replaced the battery and still not getting enough juice to start it. The battery cables are getting hot when I try to start it. Do I have bad cables? Is this a possibility with the no power to start? Any suggestions is greatly appreciated and accepted. Thank-you all very much.
Hot cables mean too much resistance. So the cables are too small, the connections are bad or what my best guess is that you fried the starter. I have found fords to be less forgiving to abuse and continuing to attempt starting with a weak battery will often kill a Ford starter.
How did you test the battery? As far as I know the only accurate tests have to be done to a fully charged battery, which means several hours on a slow charge to do it right.
My guess is that the people who sold you the new battery tested the old one for you.
Also if you have those battery cable repair ends, get rid of the cables and buy new ones, those ends are for temporary repairs only and cause a lot of problems later on. 4 gauge at the smallest, 2 is better. ( smaller gauge size is larger cable)