battery post to small, cable clamp too blig?

[micky]

This

with two shims, in case the battery posts are not big enough?

Aren't the positive battery posts all the same size, and the negative ones too?

I have a 2005 Toyota and the positve battery clamp is loose. I made a shim but I guess it's not big enough. But why should I need a shim at all?

I added a device that disconnnects the battery if it gets too low, Priority Start, and the battery cable is too loose there too. So it's the cable clamp, not the size of the post. How can that be, and why didn't google show complaints about Toyota cable clamps?

Some comment in Amzaon referred to battery clamps stretching. They don't really do that, do they?

[Dean Hoffman]

Posts and clamps vary in size.

[trader_4]

I suppose it you way over tighten them, some might. Depends on how much space there is before you can't tighten it anymore and the size of the post.

[micky]

Before you spend much time reading this, the problem is partly solved and isn't pending until there is more trouble.

Well I never tightened it more than firmly.

This is a toyota, whose cable ends have have a plastic 'cover' on the bottom, a little of which comes up between the "jaws" of the cable end, and I took that out so that I could tighten it another 4 mm. Surely that would be enough but it was not very tight. (The ends are sheet metal, not lead like I was used to.)

Then I added this box called Priority Start, which disconnects the battery if it gets too close to dead**. (It goes between the + battery post and + battery cable.)

It was even harder to get it on firmly on the + post of the Priority Start, so I put a shim in and thought it was tight, but later it loosened, wouildn't start, and the radio forgot whatever it once knew.

But finally yesterday I saw how tapered the + post was. (That's what enabled the cable to come off when it seemed to be tight.) The P.Start is only attached to the battery by a big rubber band, so I need 3 hands, to hold the box in place, hold the cable clamp down, and tighten the nut. I had to tighten until there was no space between the jaws. It shouldn't require that. Maybe if I could have pushed it down more that wouldn't have been true. (next time I'll do that, if I have to find a helper, if I still have problems.)

If the plastic thing were still separating the jaws like it came from the factory, I could never tighten it enough.

**(To reconnect, put your foot on the brake and it senses the drain and turns a motor that reconnects the contacts. You can hear the hum. No opening the hood required like with Battery Buddy.)

Thanks, and thanks, Dean.