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Neat. A drop of Blue loctite with hold them fast w/o being too tight to remove.
True. That was my option 2.
I can hear Ralph. "Why would you come to this forum, ask for help, then not listen to it?" HAHAHAHA!! He had a way of making you feel like anass.
I did check that battery connection more than once. Including after HY told me to check it. But I clearly did not check it right. If I know myself well, I probably tapped on the cable and didn't see the lug move and said, "good enough". It wasn't until I actually put my fingers on the lug and rotated it before I discovered it wasn't snugged down all the way. It makes a difference!
I believe I know what my problem was. After cleaning off the starter terminals and putting everything back together I checked my battery connections one more time before shutting the hood. I noticed the main ground cable at the battery was slightly loose. It wasn't floppy loose but I could turn the lug about the bolt with some resistance. I say this because I also noticed my voltage gauge has steadied up. Prior, I was getting a bit of the shakies on the needle. Not all the time. Maybe a third of the time. Well, that's gone now. So that loose ground might have solved that problem too.
On one hand I'm kind of disgusted with myself for not seeing that ground cable. Caused me to take the time and effort to pull the starter. On the other hand, I'm not sorry I did that. I had a leaky valve cover that I repaired a year ago. Prior tho, it coated my starter with oil and sludgy crapola. The thing was a real mess. So I was able to clean it up good while I had it out. Also, while I was under the truck farting around with the starter I noticed a coolant leak from a loose hose clamp on one of the tranny coolant lines. So I cinched that up. Knew I had a leak but never found it until I was laying under the truck resting. Also, those starter connections were crusty so I'm glad I got them cleaned up too.
As for those battery terminals, I really like those clamp-style connections with the 4 bolts (and I didn't think I would). Makes for a real neat and organized battery terminal. I posted this picture a number of times but you can see what I'm talking about. However, if there is a flaw with them it's that the bolts come loose. I think I'm going to add a lockwasher to those bolts.
Sure would seem like it HY. I'm holding to my 10 consecutive starts threshold so 4 more before I call it good. But the tipoff to me is after I secured that loose ground connection on the battery my voltage gauge on the dash firmed up. For the months prior it was randomly shaky. Man, I'll tell you what tho, those ground connections don't have to be very loose for things to start acting up. Yes, it was loose but it wasn't floppy loose. I could rotate that ground lug about the bolt but I couldn't tip it back and forth and even rotating it put up a little bit of a fight. Live and learn.
So now there are only two known things wrong with my truck. 1) The tires are 16 years old and dry rotting. One tire struggles to hold air. I suspect the others are not far behind. I have about 5,000 miles left on the tread but I don't think it will make it. But 16 years is pretty good. Michelin LTXs. 2) My ash tray light doesn't work. Ask me if I care.
