After pulling out the engine and transmission to fix a broken motor mount, I discovered something very unusual with the positive battery cable. It had been wrapped in a lot of electrical tape, clearly not done at the factory.
After unwrapping this, I was horrified that I had been driving the car like this for the last 10+ years. The wire had melted nearly in half in some point in the past. The green copper corrosion showed that it had been this way for a very long time. Unbelievable. I ordered a new cable and undertook the uncommon task of replacing that cable.
The positive cable runs from the battery compartment, over the top of the rear trailing arm, then goes between the frame and the fiberglass under body. If the cable has never been removed, it is held in place by multiple clips, which makes it very difficult to get it out. I realized that if I could barely get it out, it would be just that much harder to get a new cable in. I had the genius idea to connect a thin metal wire to one end of the cable that I was removing so that I could have a guide wire to pull the new cable through.
I found I could get more pulling leverage if I pulled it out towards the engine instead of from the battery side. I lifted up the passenger side of the under body to try and get as much room for the cable to move and I ended up breaking all of the clips that hold the cable to the frame as I pulled and tugged on the old cable. I finally got it out and you can see the metal wire I used as a fishing line below:
Getting the new cable in was just the reverse. It was much easier getting the new cable fished in than it was getting the old one out. Here is the final product with the new cable installed:
In the process of installing the new positive battery cable, I discovered that my battery compartment was in pretty sad shape, first evidenced by the crusty bracket holding the battery strap:
After taking out the battery, I found a badly worn battery pad and very corroded bolts for the rear air deflector shields that I have never had installed on my car. Those bolts were just loosely sitting there with no nuts on the outside holding them in, but were just held in by a little RTV sealant.
The bolts on the outside that held these pieces in place were not in any better shape either:
I started by removing the bracket that holds in the battery strap:
I then removed the battery pad, which had been adhered to the bottom of the battery compartment. That took a lot of scraping and Goo Gone to get it clean. I also removed the rusty bolts for the air deflector shields. I then sandblasted and painted the battery strap bracket, got stainless retaining strips for the rear deflector shields, and put in a new battery pad from DMCH:
I also replaced all of the external nuts and bolts with stainless steel, greatly improving the look and restoring the look of each of those components:
For some other cosmetic improvements, I took the original starter and painted it with black POR-15 to make it look new again:
I also restored the look of the coil suppressor and replaced all of the little nuts and bolts in that area with stainless steel:
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