What is the best way to test Chassis Battery cables with a multi-meter or whatever to determine their efficiency? I clean the terminal ends from time to time by soaking them in a Baking soda solution but cannot determine if the acid has affected the internal cable itself. I'm wondering if cables degrade/corrode somewhat inside the jacket and if so, will this affect carrying the charger load to the batteries; shorten battery life?
A good and practical way is to put a heavy load on one side, and measure voltage at each end of the cables for drop.
Don't think you need to be concerned with the wire under the sheath. Get the terminals cleaned and protected with a battery cleaner of some kind (same for battery terminals). If you know what size of cable it is, you can find out how many ohms per foot it is and just measure end to end to see where you are. Have a great day ---- Fritz
I know I ran a second set of cables directly to the starter and bypassed the black splitter box. I also redid the ground wire. FT uses a star washer to make the ground. I put on a plain one after cleaning the area and making it ready. Made a huge improvement.
That's about the only way to actually check the cables. Awhile back I started having cranking issues, started doing voltage drop tests. Ended up replacing both tie cables, and the + and - ends at the battery all of them looked new. If you do the drop check from the connection to the cable on each end you can find the bad ones pretty quick. Another Quick way if you don't have a meter handy is to put a load on the cables then check and see if any connections are warm or hot to the touch, that will be the guilty party.