A few years ago I was having some issues with the battery going dead on my '94 K1500. Turned out that the side mount bolt was shanking out in the battery so even though the bolt was tight the terminal was not. I ended up putting a thick steel washer under the bolt head to effectively shorten the bolt. This also was an issue on my '00 Silverado.

Now I find I have a different problem altogether. Once again I'm having trouble with dead batteries. This time it turns out the terminal is not making contact with the battery. When I check for voltage from positive bolt to negative bolt I get 0v. Yet if I jump start the truck and check voltage while it's running I get 14v. Shows that the alternator is working just fine. This time around I ended up putting a large area washer between the terminal end and the battery and things appear to be OK.
WTF? Is anybody else having this kind of trouble or did I just get lucky? Does anybody have an explanation? At this point I'm just guessing as to what is causing these problems and they all have to do with the manufacturer of the batteries.

 

Lots of issues with vehicle is that many parts are made in Mexico or Asia and are made cheap. Batteries are no exception. Lots of them are made in such places and wont last that long.QC seems to be non-existent in these countries..

 

Maybe it is bad battery cables. Either replace the cables or if the cable is good it might just need new terminals on the end of the cable.

 

one issue ive noticed is only part of the cable will make contact and will work for some time only to overheat and warp more to the point where it wont have contact good enough for starting.

 

Pic is a little bigger than I expected! Anyway I found this to be the best way to mount side mount battery cables. 3/8" x 1" bolt and nut. Thread the bolt as far into the battery as it will go then tighten down the nut. You can go pretty tight on the nut without worrying about stripping out the threads of the battery. Much better than OEM.

 

Looks kinda like my Mazda, crappy cheap battery clamp. These things over time will cause corrosion at the post.

 

the only issue with doing it this way (which is the way i was talking about before) is the bolt you can actually penetrate the battery terminal if you screw the bolt in too tight. what i do is tighten it down by hand then back it off a little so its not making contact. when you screw the nut to tighten the bolt should move any but have another wrench on the bolt to ensure it wont move

 

OEM Chevy, just without the rubber boot,

 

Right, I only hand tighten the bolt and use a wrench on the nut.

 

Thanks to everybody who replied to my post. Just went out and started my truck after letting it sit for a week. It fired up just fine. The flat washer between the terminal and battery seems to be doing the trick this time. I like the idea of using a bolt with a jamb nut. I may end up going that route someday. I also considered stripping the insulation off the terminals in case it was somehow preventing contact with the battery.
The battery cables seem to be good to go, I was getting 14+ volts at the terminal ends with the truck running. My best guess on my problems is the manufacturing of the battery itself. I was just curious who else was having troubles and how they solved them.