Cheap Hummer Tricks PDF Technicals Tips

This month you will receive two Cheap Tricks for the price of one! Although the pictures are of parts of a Hummer H1, this article applies equally to all vehicles with side-terminal batteries.

Picture 1 – Battery Terminal with Cover First, a little background about battery terminals and Hummers. The stock Hummer battery has side terminals. The cables are designed to “piggyback” as necessary to connect to both batteries. The late-model Hummer winch wiring harness contains these same “piggy-back” cable connections. Low-current accessories for the Hummer should be wired to one of the convenient power junctions under the hood or under the dash. This includes anything under about 60 Amps. Low-current accessories should not be attached directly to the batteries. What accessories draw more than 60 Amps? Winches and power inverters, mostly. Such high-current accessories should be connected either to the battery terminals, or (if practical) to the large studs on the starter motor.

Picture 2 – Side Terminal Cable Battery power is transferred from the battery to the cable not through the screw, but through the flat surfaces of the battery terminal and the cable connection. These surfaces must be clean and tightly pressed together in order for full power to be conducted.
Picture 3 – Battery Terminal Picture 1 shows the Hummer / H1 battery terminal with the cover in place. This cover helps keep the connection clean and prevent corrosion. Picture 2 shows the connector with the cover removed. Picture 3 shows a close-up of the battery terminal.

Picture 4 – Terminal Bolt Picture 4 shows one of the cable bolts when removed from the cable connector. Note four characteristics of this bolt: • It has a small head to discourage over tightening • It has a wide shoulder to press the terminal evenly • It has a cone-shaped shoulder (or sometimes a groove) for use with jumper cables • It is designed to strip more easily than the battery terminal Note also that the threads on this bolt are stripped. Read about this in Cheap Trick #1.

Cheap Trick #1: Stripped bolt
Picture 5 – Cable Connector I was checking the batteries in a Hummer and noticed that one of the cables was a little loose. I tried to tighten it up a bit but it came loose completely. It turns out that the threads on the screw were damaged beyond reuse. So I improvised a fix to get the truck back on the road. First, I removed the screw from the battery cable connector. Picture 5 shows this connector without the bolt in place..

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