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Hey folks,

Just picked up a 2000 Plymouth Neon LX as a winter car, since my other car is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle in winter weather. However, it's not currently running, as it's been sitting for almost a year.


The battery cables by the terminals were completely corroded through - it looked like someone poured acid on the cables and it ate right through them. The previous owner snipped some of the cable to keep it from turning all the cables into white powder. So, need a new battery and cables. Should be easy enough, right? Not so. The positive terminal lead to the starter is held in place by a nice red clip that I have no way of removing without taking the intake manifold off.

Charging headlong into it, I remove the airbox and t/b, and start unbolting the intake manifold. I got the top end off, but it seems as though it's bolted to something down below. Problem is, I can't see what it's bolted to, or where. So, I get on the intarwebs and find this site. Looks like it's an intake manifold bracket that serves no purpose except to keep an already perfectly buttoned up intake manifold in place, with the added benefit of being a major pain in the ass. Great.

Because the previous owner snipped some wire, and it was a general mess under the hood, I don't quite know where everything goes. Positive terminal needs seems like it needs to go to the high current fuse box and the starter. The negative terminal needs to be grounded to what looks like the block, but there's another lead that doesn't seem to have a home.

So, I guess my questions are:

1) Is it possible to get to that red clip that keeps the positive cable in place on the starter, and actually unbolt the old and put the in the new without tearing off the intake? If not, does anyone have pointers for removing that bracket that doesn't involve jackstands (or removing the coolant tube/radiator/etc)? The apt. complex management won't like that, and given that it's not running, I don't have a choice but to work here.

2) Given that both terminals have two leads, and making my own frankenstein is going to be a major pain...is there anywhere to buy a replacement OEM set? I've called a few stores, looked around online, but haven't had any luck. If not, does anybody have one that they'll sell?

Sorry for the long-windedness, but I'm always unnecessarily verbose. Old habit.

Its a lot of work, but you can take off that nut on the starter to remove the red shield cap without removing the intake. I did it before about 1.5yr ago. I might have reach up from underneath though too. If you're doing the work you might as well run new, bigger grounds. Check out the howto here to do it.

You can find some nice terminals at the auto store. If you look into my progress log on the first page, I think I have some pictures of what I did.

not completely sure what you mean by a red clip on the starter... do you mean the plastic cover over the whole connection? if you cant get it off nicely you can break it off.. i ended up doing that.

i dont recall having any sort of clips holding anything else..

so yeah, its entirely possible to do it without taking off the manifold or any other nonsense like that..


OEM battery cables are in the range of just under $200, so its silly to even consider that.

check out this forum for all the info you need on making your own.. its NOT difficult.

a quick blurb.. get a few feet of 4awg wire, some ring terminals, and thats about it. .make new wires! get some nice new battery terminals that will take the rings or has a large enough clamp for 2 runs of 4awg wire (have not seen any like that that) since youll have about a 12" wire from the battery to the fuse box and a 30"-ish wire (i think is how i made mine) from the battery to the starter.

as for the ground.. my car only had a ground from the battery to the chassis on the fender, nothing else..

jT wrote:a quick blurb.. get a few feet of 4awg wire, some ring terminals, and thats about it. .make new wires! get some nice new battery terminals that will take the rings or has a large enough clamp for 2 runs of 4awg wire (have not seen any like that that) since youll have about a 12" wire from the battery to the fuse box and a 30"-ish wire (i think is how i made mine) from the battery to the starter

a set costs about $30-35 shipped brand new. these are my old ones that are now sitting in the garage, each with two 4g and two 8g connections.

Yea wen i had still had my neon me n my friend changed out all the grounds and the cable from the Alt to the Batt.

Its not hard just have to make sure u crimp the terminals right.

I used wiring that we had left over from Audio installs. Its easy as shit, well atleast the grounds were.

Just remove the old wires, cut the new ones to the same length and re-install.