ground wire....is this ok to do ?

i have a 49 chev pu.350/350 combo...battery is in the stock location on the frame under the floor....i'm routing the battry cables and know i have to ground the battery to the engine....my question is ...to make this easy is it acceptable to use one of the starter mounting bolts to attach my ground cable to?.....if not what is acceptable or perferred..............whid

 

no, how about using a bolt hole in the back of the head?

The starter bolts need to be tight, it's kind of hard to make them tight as they should be with a battery cable under them

 

The wiring harness I used from Ron Francis recommended grounding to one of the starter bolts. Macr for a long ground because my battery was in the rear under the bed.

 

I would run it to one of the bell housing bolts then run another cable from that point to the frame using the same heavy gauge cable.

 

trying to keep the cable as far away from the exhaust as possible.............whid

 

Agree with Squirrel. Find a spot on the engine block/bell housing, run a flat "braided" ground strap (sell 'em thru Summit/Jegs, etc.) to the ch***is and run your battery ground to a point on the ch***is as well. Make sure the metal surface is clean & free of rust. You can never have too many grounds. IMO

 

I would recommend the bellhousing bolt also. I wouldn't use the starter bolts, not on a Chevrolet. Then I would also have a ground from the engine to the frame. The 3rd and final ground should be from the engine to the cab or body/firewall. This will confirm the ground for the main wiring harness and all the instruments/gauges. TR

 

ok,will look for another spot...i got a pair of astro van cables at pull and pay... on the ground cable it has a fairly heavy wire (almost a cable itself) in addition to the cable....it has enough room to reach the frame, so if i can attach it there..bolt the cable to the block somewhere...i bought some flat braided ground straps at louisville,1/2" wide and 12" long....was gonna bolt them to the back of the head and attack them to the firewall somewhere.....is this enough or do i need to do something else as far as grounds go ? i bought some extra straps should i ground the bed to the frame also ?

 

You can't have too many grounds on a car. My Bonneville came from the factory with four braided ground straps - two on the back end of the cylinder heads that go to the firewall, and two on the front end of the cylinder heads that go to the frame.

The negative battery cable goes to one of the cylinder head bolts.

 

whid, I dont have a turbo 350 handy, only Powerglides and sticks. The Powerglides have ears or big thick tabs of aluminum on the ****** cases, I use these if I cant reach the bellhousing for whatever reason. The idea behind all this is that the starter motor is the biggest draw on the system, so its generally regarded as best to get the battery ground as close to this high draw as possible. TR

 

sbc have enough probs with starters,,id stay away from using those bolts ,,,,i have my battery in the trunk.. and i use a bolt on the back of the head..

 

I welded a bolt to the frame near the starter, under the battery tray. Ground cable from the battery to the bolt, then from the bolt to the bellhousing. Routed it that way to avoid the cable rubbing the exhaust. I like the back of the head idea and I'll take a look at that. I used one of the ground cables that has the 10 gauge pigtail and ran that to the cab.

 

I used one of the 4 bolts for the 350 tailshaft housing. That solved my no start when hot issue. Keep the battery cables as short as reasonably possible.

 

I use a starter bolt for a ground wire connection. It works!

 

Don't forget to use star washers and clean the surface under the connections of any paint for better ground.

 

My opinion: there's no problem with grounding to the starter bolt. The copper end on the ground wire will compress only so far, so you'll be able to get it tight fine. You do have problems when you have to pull the starter, as the wire is just one more thing to move. As far as electricity is concerned, it doesn't care where you mount it, so long as it's a good clean ground.

 

I had a big ground cable on my race motor that went right to the starter bolt. BBC with 14:1 compression and a stock starter (!). It lasted for 2 seasons of racing with no issues but I did burn out a solenoid after a couple hundred starts. I used a star washer on the bolt.

 

I've seen bolts that have another thrtead sticking out of the top-like a stud with a hex on it about 3/4 the way down. You bolt up your item and tighten the hex like a normal bolt, then you can put a terminal on the remainng thread and just run a nut onto it- both stay tight that way.