Block heater

[Bizkitbroke]

Yesterday the male end of my heater cord broke off. Can I just buy a new male end fromm say Lowes and match the wires to the terminal the round one being ground or are the wires specific in some other manor? also since this has happened I wanted to extend the cord so it is easier to grip when pulling apart can these things be done? any advice would be help full. Thanks.

[pipelayerjdh]

As long as you use the same gauge wire, a good heavy duty plug and make good weatherproof connections you will be fine. The heating element is AC, so no polarity problems.

[Bizkitbroke]

How can I figure out the wire size? I looked in my Haynes repair manual and couldn't find the wiring diagram.

[super_stroke]

i think its 12ga or 14ga. it doesnt hurt to use bigger (smaller #'s) but 12ga is the smallest i would use. 12ga is fine depending on how much longer you make it.

[gbear]

On AC electricity there is a polarity to be concerned with. The cord has two conductors and a ground conductor if you will notice the wires in the cord will have a color of white or ribs on one of the conductors this should be connected to neutral or the silver screw in the plug. The conductor without a white color or ribs is the hot conductor and should be connected to the brass screw in the plug. And of course the green or center conductor is the equipment ground conductor. Electrical devices are wired where metal areas
that are most likely to come in contact with a person will come in contact with the neutral conductor. The outer shell of a lamp socket is wired to the neutral for this reason.

Jim