Hi, I work for a bank that has recently repo'd a ford e450 shuttle bus. We had to swap the batteries out, they were old and super dead. Someone stole the batteries out of it over the New Year's holiday so we have to replace them again. I have a couple of questions about it.


The thieves removed something from the cables, and we can't remember exactly how they went on. I have a diagram of how I remember it went together. There is a set of 2 cables hanging down toward the front of the vehicle where the thieves had removed something. We assumed it was a battery terminal connector. So we bought it, and installed it on the cables. After getting the batteries installed, we went to hook it up and realized that with that addition, we now have too many terminals and not enough posts. I have attached a diagram. Please help! Thank you very much.


By the way it is a diesel!

 

From the diagram you showed the batteries are connected in parallel which is correct.
The additional cables, I would suggest that you trace the addl cables and see exactly where they go.
Sometimes places will have an auxiliary plug set up to use in a jumper battery situation similar to what electric forklifts use to connect batteries. These are set up to make connecting the jumper cables easier. Just make sure those extra cables cannot touch anything since they could be connected to the parts of the vehicle that the regular batteries cables connect to. Your vehicle should start and run normally with the connections as shown. Let us know where those extra cables go and we should be able to help clarify everything.