Side Terminal Battery Torque

[Setec Astronomy]

I am always afraid of overtightening these because I have had leaks at the terminal threads on batteries of different brands. Recently, the ground terminal on mine has been loosening up (which is loads of fun, BTW). So I decided to look up the torque :doh and my manual says 13 ft-lbs., which seems unbelievably high for that little screw going into a lead thread.



I went up to 10 ft-lbs., which felt pretty close to bad things happening. Any of you ever have the terminals leak, strip threads, torque these all the way up??

[wifehatescar]

Maybe try a lock washer on it to keep the torque low but keep it from loosening?

[Lowejackson]

The washer is a good idea :up