Battery Terminal replacement wiring

Hi All,

I've done a significant amount of searching on the topic and have found a number of electrical wiring threads but none of them specifically answer this question - how to terminate the OEM wiring harness when replacing battery terminals.

The back story

I purchased all the parts to install a Blue Sea aux fuse block in the engine compartment area and decided that the cleanest way to run power to the aux block was to replace the OEM battery terminals with ones that have additional connection points (marine-type). However, the OEM bent steel lugs are only designed to bolt to the OEM terminals. So I'm wondering, for those that have done this already, what approach is the easiest?

1. Modify/drill out the existing bent steel lugs to fit the new terminals?
2. Cut off & replace the existing bent steel lugs with standard crimped lugs?
3. Replace the OEM wires in question (undo the entire harness, replace the 2 +/- wires and rebuild harness)?

Any thoughts/guidance to share? Thanks in advance!

 

I’ve got the SDHQ terminals and I just removed the factory ones and bolted them to these. Took 5 minutes.

 

Same as above. The SDHQ terminals are worth it!

 

When I replaced the negative terminal clamp with a military style one, I went with option 1 because I was out of the appropriately sized crimp on lug. been fine for 2 years now.

 

Oh man, those are perfect replacements but holy hell are they pricey (reaches for credit card). Thanks for the quick help!!

 

The SDHQ battery terminal upgrade kit is worth it! Especially if you run direct feeds to your battery for winches and what not. I have NO buyers remorse for getting them.

 

Agreed! I took a close look at the pics and figured that the the expense was worth it, for the shiny CNC work and the amount of grief that I'll likely avoid. I'm going to run power to a Blue Sea 6 circuit aux panel so I can relocate my rat's nest of accessory wiring from the battery to the panel. I'm definitely looking forward to getting it sorted out!

Thanks again to all of you for the quick recommendation!

 

I guess I'm the only one who doesn't see what the SDHQ terminal does that a mil-spec lug doesn't do, aside from cost $130?

 

Does anyone running the SDHQ have better pictures of how the cables connect to the new battery terminals? I’m not understanding the install instructions on the sdhq website

 

I don't own them but in order to change the battery terminals on the 3rd gen tacoma, you need to replace (with an appropriately sized eyelet terminal) or modify the factory terminal clamp (this is what I did with a pair of diagonal cutters and a drillbit) so that the battery cables on your truck can connect using any bolt on terminal lug.

If you are replacing them entirely, you would cut the factory clamps off, strip the wire back and use a hydraulic or HD crimper to attach your new eyelet terminal.

If you don't go that route, then use the dikes to cut away the factory clamp and leave the flat section at the end of the battery cable, then drill whatever size hole is needed for the SDHQ clamp.