Negative Ground Cable Broken

I was replacing my spark plugs this weekend and when I went to hook my battery back up, I realized the ground cable that connects from the negative wire to the frame was completely broke. I'm not sure how long it's been like this. I know the truck started at least once while it was disconnected. I've since "repaired" it by reattaching the wires with electrical tape. Can I anyone let me know what a proper way to fix these wires is?

I'm assuming that if this becomes totally disconnected again my battery will die, right?

 

Here's a picture of what it looks like now so you know exactly what wire I'm talking about.

 

Yep, that is a body ground. Your battery will still charge, just not as good.

Soldering a new length of wire is one of the best ways to fix.

 

Mine was disconnected for weeks before I realized it and I noticed nothing wrong with my truck...I reconnected it and now I just make a point to check on it every so often.

 

Solder can make things brittle, or at least reduce flexability in the area of the solder. And flexing is what caused the issue it looks like.

I'd be looking for a replacement at a wrecking yard, or at least pricing an aftermarket replacement.

Or depending on exactly how that is assembled, you might only need a new clamp and a length of the correct gauge wire.

But I'm curious about why unhooking the battery to change spark plugs?

 

Any Lynx Battery Cable will do it. Ensure to get the right length of the cable (not too long).
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Any accessories that are attached to a body ground rather than back to the negative terminal shouldn't be able to work anymore since there would no longer be a complete circuit. You could always make a custom length cable at a place like West Marine.

 

Same thing happened to me. That body ground cable is really stiff and really short, I just electrical taped it really tight to where it broke off of, I haven't really found a permanent solution yet.

 

Using a butt-connector would be the simplest solution. That looks like 6 or 8 gauge cable? The other solution is to simply make some new cabling (of a higher quality) and replace the broken cable.

 

Get a piece of 4 gauge wire and crimp on 2 connectors and replace. Or even easier like someone already said just get a new generic one from any auto parts store.

 

I use Marine battery terminals and upgrade all my cables .

I get short pieces of welding cable that would be thrown out it works really great.

 

As long as the ground on the back of the intake is still hooked to the firewall it still has a body ground.

 

What mechanicjon said. The negative terminal is also attached to the engine or transmission, and the engine is grounded to body, so as long as you don't lose both grounds you're good.

 

Plan and simple, easiest fix, right here ^

 

I went ahead and fixed mine using the Lynx battery cable. Pretty easy, the metal is reasonably flexible to conform to any mounting surface. The cable is a lot thicker and higher gauge than the original OEM grounding cable. It was like $6 dollars at Pep Boys. It's a tight squeeze.

I grounded it behind the fuse box since my HID relay was in the way.