1st question: On my daughters 2001 F150 battery terminals were heavily corroded with blue sulfate on the positive terminal. After changing the battery and cleaning the battery terminals I noticed that the bottom of the positive terminal is eaten away a bit. Was thinking of just changing the whole battery starter cable but it's very expensive, if it can be found at all. Then thought of getting a battery cable splice kit but don't know which one to get, or what size/gauge the battery cables are, and if I should do both cables (pos & neg). Maybe I can get by with just changing the positive terminal end, but since there was so much blue sulfate I am wondering if I should strip the positive cable back a bit and use a splice. So, does anyone know what the best battery splice kit to use is and or what size/gauge are the wires coming into the positive and negative terminal ends are, or should I just replace the terminal end(s)?,

2nd question: The battery itself has been bouncing around because the battery hold down clamp seems to be missing what i am assuming is a "U"-nut, spring nut. or "J"- nut. Does anyone know what type and size is supposed to go there?
Can't see bottom of terminal connector in pic but it's pretty eaten away. Should we just replace the terminal connector or strip the cables back and use a splice?

Prev owner replaced neg terminal connector with wrong one and 'made it work'?

Hole in bottom of battery tray (shown from above). What type and size of U-nu/J-nut, or whatever goes in this hole that the battery clamp screws into?

 

Honestly I'd probably just use the cable that you have. But I can't see how much is eaten away. But try this, start the truck as normal and check that eaten away place and see if the cable has gotten hot or any hotter there than anywhere else on the cable. If it hasn't then the cable should be ok. Those little red and green fabric washers that DAP, AZ, Pepboys and others sell to put around the battery terminal and under the clamp are pretty effective at preventing battery terminal corrosion and only cost a few bucks. Tape alone won't stop battery acid from eating up the copper since the battery acid will just creep up the wire. The tape could even make it worse since you can't wash under it. You need to keep the top of the battery clean and the fabric washers will also help. You might coat the bare wire with grease to stop the acid from wicking up the wire and then put tape over that to prevent shorting out the cable with a wrench of anything similar.

 

soak in some Coca-cola....rinse...add GREASE over exposed areas.... pretty sure that uses a j-clip for the hold down. Just take your hold down bolt to the "store"....find what fits.