My 87 NA is having some starting and charging issues. I suspect that it is the battery cables and plan to replace them. These are mixed up in the harness so it is hard to tell what lengths of cable I need. I prefer to have all the parts on hand before starting. Does anyone know what lengths of cable are needed? I'm planning to purchase premade cables from an auto parts store.

 

I can't remember exactly, but I had some 5 ft. cables that I cut down to about 4 ft. A little extra cable won't hurt.

And if you're having charging issues, the very first thing to check out is the alternator. Even if it's a brand new one, I've had 2 that had bad regulators right out of the box.

 

I've also had several bad ones from the box. They were refurbished though.

 

wow, me too. One new and one refurbished, neither worked. I thought i was going crazy. now i have them test the alt before i even leave the store.

 

I've had them test a bad one and they said it was fine. I disagreed and made them replace it anyways.

 

Thanks. My alt is good.

The power was cutting out everytime I tried to turn the car over so I suppected the negative battery ground. The cables looked really bad so I cleaned up the terminals and now the cables will not stay on. I could shim the battery terminals for now, but the wires look bad and I want to be sure I've fixed the problem.

 

For anyone who needs the information, I ran a 53" red cable from the position batter terminal to the starter, a 24" cable from the starter the shock tower, and a 24" cable from the shock tower to the negative battery terminal.