After a year of my positive battery cable giving me headaches, it finally joined the choir invisible. I got a replacement from AutoZone. It worked for a few miles, then everything shut down.

I went to another shop, where the employee said I needed to transplant the pigtail that goes to the fuse box on to the cable. So I did that. The same thing happened--started once, then died. Now, it doesn't even seem to taking a charge.

Any ideas?

 

Alternator? Do you have a separate battery tender to do the charging?

 

I do have a separate battery tender to do the charging. It's just not taking trhe charge.

How would a dead battery cable kill an alternator? And why would a bad alternator keep a battery from taking a charge?

Also, I had one genius ground his portable charger to the alternator. Could that have killed it?

 

I thought alternator, since the new battery worked for a few miles. But now that I read what you typed, maybe you didn't replace the battery, just the cable?

If your battery isn't taking the charge, is the tender hooked directly up to the battery (no pigtails or anything involved?) If so, the battery might be toast?

Because with a tender, you are eliminating any use of the car's wiring.

 

I tried hooking it up directly to the battery, as well as to the pigtail and the frame. No difference, except to the damage to my hand trying to reach the battery. There is even less room to reach the posts in the 5.3 than there is in yours.

 

I replaced my positive cable a year ago because of similar issues. The car kept dying on me repeatedly, although I could jump start it usually. After the cable replacement and battery charge, I took off down the road about a mile and everything started to shut down again. Luckily, I was close to a GMC dealership I trust and limped it to their shop. They checked it out and the alternator was toast. Bought a remanufactured unit and all has been well ever since... Apparently the alternator had been going out and I didn't notice because of the cable issue.

 

I assume all of your terminal connections are clean since you replaced a cable? This past fall I ran into a dead battery and it would not take a charge or a jump. The car was 100% dead, no lights, sounds, nothing. At that time the battery was only 11 months old. I disconnected the terminals at the battery posts, sprayed with battery cleaner and wire brushed them really good and reconnected them. Boom. I was able to get power. The crazy thing is the connections didn't even look dirty but apparently they were dirty enough. Got the battery charged and haven't had an issue since. For what it's worth, I'm still on the original alternator.

Regarding the tender, I put one on mine during winter storage... and from now on I will be putting it on year-round when the car sits for longer than a couple days. I never know what to expect with the Monte. For some reason that car eats the battery sometimes, even if it sits for just a week. And I draw tested it which came back with zero draw.

 

If you are hooking directly to the battery, and it's not taking a charge, I would think the battery is toast from everything else that went on.

I know how little room there is with the LS4. You have to really tip and fight with that damn battery, even with the fuse box out of the way it's such a PITA.

 

So, the joy continues. I ordered an OEM cable from Rock Auto on Saturday, knowing it wouldn't ship until Monday, and thus paid for Priority Mail so I would at least get it today. Didn't happen. In addition, knowing in advance that I wouldn't get it, I emailed them (you can't call and speak to a human being) and they never responded.

I would say "I wish I'd got it from the dealer," which would have gotten it here on Monday, but that would've cost $238.

The moral of the story: Don't order anything from Rock Auto if it's for your daily driver.

 

That's the other thing I was thinking was to try the OEM cable. I found the cables on a few GM parts websites, one of them being gmpartscenter.net for $133 (pos cable #19115412) and $147 (neg cable #19115414), which I know doesn't help your situation but they're there for others' reference. An alternator (#15139480) is roughly $400.

Actually I might be in the market for a new negative cable soon so this is good to know for me. On this last battery swap my negative cable terminal snapped from the force of loosening the nut. It still fits snug on the post and stays in place but it's not fastened down like it should be.

I personally haven't used Rock Auto but my Dad has and he's had problems with their shipping and also getting wrong parts.

OEM battery parts > https://www.gmpartscenter.net/auto-p...t/battery-scat