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Found out the hard way why you size starter cables to length
Helped a buddy swap a starter on a 6.7 Cummins last Saturday in his driveway near Allentown. He had 4 feet of leftover 2 gauge cable from an old stereo install, so we used that instead of buying a proper replacement. The starter dragged so bad it smoked the solenoid in under 10 cranks. Anyone else ever run into voltage drop issues with cable that's too long or undersized?
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noah8802mo ago
...and that's exactly how I learned that 4 gauge welding cable makes a damn fine jumper for a dead battery, but it turns into a heater when you use it for a starter on a cold morning. My cousin wired his whole F-150 with some leftover marine cable once and we spent the next hour smelling burnt plastic and cursing every single connection. The math never lies when the current is high enough, so now I just buy the factory length and move on with life.
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