Both of the neg and pos cables were badly corroded. I cut the pos cable a few inches back from the terminal and the corrosion was still bad. So I decided to go ahead and replace the whole assembly. I bought the new motorcraft cables. I ran into a problem trying to take out the old harness.

The wires that go up to the alternator are run behind the p/s bracket. It looks like there is a bolt that holds the plastic casing (around the wires) to the block/head/??? Can someone tell me if there is a way to snake those wires out / back in without tearing half the front end apart?

 

Yeah I have to replace mine too. I think I'm just gonna bring it to a shop cause its 0* here and I don't feel like dealing with it.

 

Well, if anyone finds this thread by searching, it looks like the only way to get to that bolt is to remove the drivers side accessory bracket from the head. Once that was completely loose, I could reach the bolt. The motorcraft harness is nice in that it has all the clips and holddowns being a direct replacement. Total time it took me was about 5 hours. Called a shop and they said book was 3 hours, their rate at $88/hr means I can spend ~$300 guilt free on the racecar

BTW, it's 68* here, so I couldn't use that excuse.