Durn. Need help with a '92 Nissan 4x4

[Mr. Dot]

Recently bought a '92 Nissan truck to replace my dying old Ford. Today I did what I expected to be the simple business of moving my 2 meter radio to the new truck. Two wires, positive and negative, attached to the battery. Piece of cake. There are two bolts that tighten the positive cable to the battery. On one side there is a gadget with a jumble of wires and the second bolt is bare. I loosened the bare side so as to slip the positive radio wire connector in and re-tightened. When I loosened the bolt I thought heard a slight sound that seemed to be coming from near the firewall. No burning smell or smoke - just a slight strange little sound somewhere. I tightened everything back up, tested the radio (worked fine) and figured I was done. Shortly later when I tried starting the truck I realized I had a problem. When the key is turned there is a chattering sound like what you would make with your tongue. All other electrics seem fine.
I took the connections to the battery apart again, made sure everything was clean and tried it again. Same deal.
Anyone familiar with Nissan have any idea what might be happening? I think something must have gotten zapped by disconnecting the positive but dang if I know what it might be (not to mention why disconnecting the battery should kill my truck).
Any suggestions welcome.

 

[tech]

From your description, you have those cheap aftermarket emergency-use-only battery terminals on there. Get rid of them, get some good crimp on terminals and I would be willing to bet your problem will be solved

 

[byronandkathy2003]

From your description, you have those cheap aftermarket emergency-use-only battery terminals on there. Get rid of them, get some good crimp on terminals and I would be willing to bet your problem will be solved

I am with tech on this! but if you cant do that then take the clamp/s off of your batt and take it apart and wire brush it where the wire connects to it make sure it good and clean and the wires also before you put it back together I have used these clamps on terminals many times but you have you keep them very clean at all times or they will leave you stranded and always at all the wrong times

 

[intothatgoodnight]

Take ENTIRE connection on positive terminal APART, and clean ALL of the connections with spray electrical connector cleaner, or carb cleaner (careful not to spark battery when using volatile cleaners/degreasers) -- after degunking, use sand paper or wire brush to brighten up the now degunked positive battery terminal, then coat ALL connections thoroughly with die-electric grease before reassembling -- die-electric grease can be bought in a tube, made by Permatex and other companies, at your local auto-parts store.

The die-electric grease will slow down the natural tendency of the connections to produce corrosion over time, greatly extending the time periods between necessary cleanings and de-gunkings.

This is not an ordinary grease, rather a conductive-type grease -- seems counter-intuitive, but is the secret sauce used by mechanics in the know.

Another trick -- replace the positive battery connector with a gold-plated version -- more costly, but does not build up corrosion as readily.

We restore old cars, and have several that sit in garages most of the time, to be occasionally driven on sunny days or to local car shows -- these are the two tricks that we use to assure that they are ready to run electrically, when we expect them to, and not leave us along the road, broken down due to poor electrical and/or positive battery connection.