Battery Cable Grounding Warning

[DSSA]

I just picked up an '01 E53 4.4 this afternoon, and when I arrived to look at it, it had a dead battery for sitting for a couple of months.

We went to put jumpers from my truck (Dodge Cummins) on to the battery and the previous owner was removing the cover out of the way when i saw some sparking. We stopped moving everything and I carefully dug around the positing battery cables, paying attention to the wires themselves and looking for a split in the shielding. As I was looking, I picked up the lug that they use to join the two pieces of the main cable together, about 18" off of the positing terminal. I looked down while it was in my hand and noticed that the factory had used thick heat-shrink to cover it and prevent it from grounding where it lies on the floor of the truck. This heat shrink had split from age/improper application/a rough edge on the lug and the back side of the lug was completely exposed. It had actually arced enough over time that there were some pin holes burnt through the sheet metal where it had arced several times over who knows how long.

Once the car is towed over tomorrow night, I'm going to recover it with two layers of heat shrink and then wrap it in electrical tape.

However, if you're having electrical issues or are getting in at the battery for one reason or another, you may want to inspect this to make sure that the heatshrink covering it is good repair.

If I'm able to (per boards rules), once I get the car over to my shop I'll snap a couple of pictures to show you what I'm talking about.

Josh