The advice a while back was to "test the wingnuts to see if they float"
by throwing them in the water. Replace the ones that sink with regular
hex nuts or locknuts that are tightened with a wrench.


"tony thomas" wrote in message
news:Ybkwe.99781$_o.39993@attbi_s71...
Every outboard I have ever seen has battery cables designed for screw
down posts. All the batteries come w/ wing nuts and you tighten them
down w/ a pair of pliers to make sure they are good and tight.

--
Tony
my boats and cars at http://t.thomas.home.mchsi.com

-
"Butch Davis" wrote in message
link.net...
A little surprising to hear talk of tightening battery cables at the
battery terminals with pliers?? Switch to clamp-on cable ends for high
amp connections such as starters. Those wing nut connectors are only
useful for connecting electronics directly to the batteries when there
is no terminal strip for the purpose. If you have a battery on-off
switch those connections should also be checked and cleaned and
tightened if necessary. As Dan suggested the CRC battery connection
cleaner/protector is great stuff if a little messy. It's red and never
completely dries.

Invest the few cents for a battery cable end and clamp connector wire
brush.. A file? Golly, use the brush.

Obviously, if you're on the water and need to clean the connections
and you have no brush use something else.

Butch
"Dan Krueger" wrote in message
.net...
Tim,

Tony beat me to it by a long shot. Maybe a different time zone??

I don't remember if I mentioned this in my post, but a file like the
one on a leatherman tool will do the trick on the lead battery posts
in a hurry. Don't forget to clean the corrosion off of the copper
connections from the engines. The file is also great for that.

Since you have one starting fine the corrosion is probably on the
connection to the battery from the other motor.

Dan


Tim Kelley wrote:
Tony, Dan,

Thanks - I'll take your advice and clean the heck out of the battery
connections (on both batteries), and recharge them. Hopefully
that's
the problem. I tightened the terminal connection with a pair of
pliers, but they aren't too clean - that's for sure.

Glad I'm running twin 115's. This problem happened 50 miles from
port.

Tim