Looking for battery/starter harness

[James Morse]

I can't find this part for my truck, Googled a lot I don't see it. Can anyone help me find this please?

 

[franklin2]

Is it the fat wires or does it have little wires in it also?

 

[James Morse]

As far as I see, it has the fat wires to the starter plus branching off, it has wires to the two terminals on the engine bay fuse box and another branch going to a plastic connector that hooks into its mate near the brake assist (near the firewall). The hot (red) side at the battery has dual fat wires and the ground side has one fat wire and one small wire that grounds to the body right near the battery. Hope that helps. THANKS.

 

[franklin2]

I was wondering, since I have a feeling you might have to make it up yourself.

They have these. https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Positive-Negative-Battery-Terminal/dp/B00HFHBLEA?tag=959media-20

and the parts stores have red and black cables. I was in Walmart the other day back in their auto repair area and they sell red and black battery cables also.

 

[James Morse]

oh, no those aren't anything like it, but thanks.

 

[Shran]

You might have to make your own... or call a dealership and see if they can get you a Ford part number.

Up until very recently you could get Motorcraft positive cables for the older (94 down 4.0) trucks for about $50... pretty decent deal, then the price went up to $75, then $120, and now out of stock.

 

[James Morse]

oh man. well, not sure if I need it, but I'm about to replace the starter and I'd hate to do that then find out cable is crappy, plus, at 23 yrs old I'm thinking it would be good policy to replace it while I have stuff apart. I'll ask at the Mazda place but usually when I ask for parts they say stuff is out of production, but they might have old stock, who knows. thanks.

 

[franklin2]

If you do much of your own work, you will find out after awhile that if you have a good original Ford part that was on the truck when it was built, try to hang on and use that part as long as you can. With the quality of the parts you can buy now, you can end up buying trouble or something that doesn't last but a few years.

Once you get burned a couple of times with this, you will know what I mean. If your starter is still working and not giving trouble, just being old as the hills, I would not replace it. I would carefully inspect the cables, and repair the ends if you need to.

 

[James Morse]

OK that makes sense, and once I get it up on stands and can get under better I can jump to the starter with cables and see if it works or not. I think. That's a good idea. I get what you are saying.
Edit: just had another thought, I could take starter out, take to rebuild shop, it probably wouldn't be a lot less than new startrer, but, it would be original part, like you say probably better.