Ground wire on distributor makes engine last longer?

Smokey, "Obsessive compulsive disorder" (I ride all over Tn.. ) You ain't that far off if I can help ya.. I got more junk than Red Sanford.

Sometimes. OCD. it is handy.. I am a electrician that worked out of IBEW LU175 Chattanooga, when I hook wires up, sometimes thousands of them, being ocd means they all will be in the correct spot, and do the correct thing. Engine assembly, same, clean, right, tight. While I was a tattoo artist, the customers appreciated the same attention to detail.

(BB427).. Yes, that is called Skin effect. When grabbing say 1 million volts from a tesla coil, it travels over the outside of the body making a tingling crawling sensation.. when sticking a single finger into the purple lightning.. I noticed a small black spot on my finger.. where it had "found" the salt laden capillary-vein which was a better conductor than the dry surface skin.. and burned out the spot on my finger dehydrating it. It didn't get well for months. It will "blow" off arms and legs when you get in series with a high voltage power line, cause the salt in the blood, travels over the surface, but current also through the lowest resistance paths. (that's a very bad day at work)

And.. yes.. not everyone can agree on everything. I am not always right, nor always wrong. I created my own problem, I covered my engine with polyester powder coat insulation.

HEI, if you identified the ground wire, from module going up to the cap, took it out and grounded it well, it may not affect a thing, but it would be a better ground than depending on all them painted parts.

 

Had a motor home with a Ford 460 that ate charging systems almost every trip ( did not make Mrs Jalopy very happy ) . After trying to find the problem with out success I had two different automotive electrical shops try to fix the problem with no solution. So looking at the system the regulator was mounted on the radiator support and there were five bolted body panels between that and where the motor was grounded to the body, plus the alternator bracket on the motor. A number 10 wire from the alternator mounting bolt to the regulator mounting bolt solved the problem and I had one happy camper.

 

Just another reason to emulate what the manufacturers do. If you use all the ground wires that a new car is built with you won't have any problems. Just make sure that they are in fact completing the circuit. That means metal to metal contact! It is when we get sloppy that we have problems.

~Alden

 

I agree with theory and can point to an experience I had with bearing failure traced back to wierd grounds. Back inthe 70's when VW first introduced the Rabbit, and then Jetta, it was common for them to have premature front wheel bearing problems.

As due to the nature of front wheel drive set up, the fix was expensive. The failures generally exhibited pitted bearings and gauled races. After a few years and many failures VW finally admitted that it was due to an inadvertant ground path where by the electrical system found is own path for chassis ground istead of the intended path.

I believe they addressed it by adding a couple more ground straps between engine and chassis and body and engine. They never did do a recall, but I wonder how many accidents may have been caused by wheelbearings that failed at speed?

You could the ground the body of the dist to a manifold or head bolt or back to a good ground on the firewall (assuming you body is properly grounded.) Do not ground the coil to dist terminal as this will bypass the points.

 

No too much hotter and that throttle cable would have welded itself in place! Sure would suck if it decided to weld solid at wide open throttle! I've heard of people getting killed from that exact situation.