Negative cable

[My85Chevy]

Hey guys,

Having no idea how long my battery cables have been on I figured replacing them was a cheap and easy thing to do first to improve my starting issues.  I bought a 25 inch top post cable with aux lead believing this would match up with the cable I had on.  Well it doesn't.  Length is correct but this aux lead is useless to me.  I've uploaded a picture of both cables side by side.  Any input would be appreciated.  Could I cut the aux lead off the old cable, strip a bit of the wire, and connect it to the short lead on my new cable?  Or should I be shopping for a different cable? 

[rich weyand]

Either way.  You just need to get a frame connection to the battery negative.

[LTZ C20]

There's nothing wrong with that new cable. Cut the old smaller wire off at the base of the terminal, strip it and crimp it to the yellow butt connector on the new cable. Install cable onto truck.

The reason they leave just a short piece of cable with a yellow connector is so that you as can install whatever extra wires or something that you have. As long as you have a top post battery, there should be no problems.

[BiggG74]

You could also just tap the wire to the radiator support for your ground. There's a little 9/16 size bolt you can tap into.

[LTZ C20]

BiggG74, the small wire in his picture IS the wire that is supposed to be connected to the radiator support.

[BiggG74]

Oops my mistake. I thought he had it grounded somewhere else.

[LTZ C20]

I think he was just confused on why the old cable has a long extra ground wire with a terminal and the new one has a short extra wire with a butt connector. The wire just needs to be cut off and swapped to the new cable.