I have had an old 84 F250 4x4 that runs a 460 engine for a long time. For a while, it had the odd problem of starting fine cold, but hardly turning over when it had been stopped for a few minutes after coming up to normal operating temperature. This puzzled me, because the battery cables looked great on the outside, the battery was new, the connections were shiny and it didn"t happen EVERY time. I messed around with the truck being somewhat unreliable for a couple of years, trying this and that.
Finally I tried changing the battery cables, and the problem went away. I decided to investigate and cut into the insulation on the old positive cable. Inside the outwardly perfect looking insulation, I found mostly blue powder. There were less than 10 strands of copper wire that had not oxidized and come apart. I was surprised that the old truck would start at all with that cable!
So, to answer your question, yes, the corrosion does reduce the amount of current a cable can carry. Just how and why a cable can corrode inside without any outward sign remains a puzzle. But that was what happened with my truck. And now I examine battery cables much more closely when one of my machines has a starting problem.
I would replace the cable with a quality new one. Good luck!
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Today's Featured Article - The Nuts and Bolts of Fasteners - Part 2 - by Curtis Von Fange. In our previous article we discussed capscrews, bolts, and nuts along with their relative hardness and thread sizes. In this segment we will finish up on our fasteners and then work with ways to keep them from loosening up in the field. Capscrews, bolts and nuts are not the only means of holding two parts together. When dealing with thinner metals like sheet tin, a long bolt and
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