Ok folks, I wanna hear ideas on grounds. I am wiring the touring. Here is what I am doing. Ground strap by the starter going to the frame. Battery grounded to the frame. Body mounted solidly to the fram and grounds. Lots of dielectric grease. For the fuse panel, I plan on using a terminal strip as a common ground with jumpers between the posts. All of this will ground to teh frame as well. Most of my guages are mechanical. very little wiring in this car. Any ideas on what I propose? Good, bad, ugly?
OK, the idea was original in my head. BUT! I got the new Ron Francis catalog today and see a similar setup. He gets $22.95 for his.
I think on a lot of newer cars, it's Negative Bat > Frame > Motor. They run a cable from neg. bat. to the frame, and then on the same bolt, there's another double eyelet cable from frame > motor. Just my observation from my bored days at work...
Sounds good TMAN, but I'd still add a ground from the battery to the body. Some of those battery cables have an extra pigtail that is good for that, or you can tie in at the same place the battery cable ties to the frame. Just my 2-cents.
Actually Reggie, I forgot to add that the *****in Battery box is set up to ground to the frame AND the body.
maybe i'm just real cynical today, more than usual, but you realise that dielectric grease doesn't conduct electricity, right? It is vital that you have a very low resistance connection between the battery cathode and the engine, thats the most critical ground on the car. secondary would be the frame, so i think i'd go from the battery to the motor, then motor to frame. The teminal strip seems like a good clean way to ground everything under the dash. David
Did a quick search. It keeps the contacts from corroding. http://www.brickboard.com/ARCHIVES/1998JAN/7808.shtml
Throgh the years of screwing around with snow plow trucks I've found one of the most effective ways to make a good ground is by running a 1/4" bolt through the frame/ body and tightening the nut against the frame/body with no wires between. Then you put your ground wires on the bolt and add another nut (make any sense?) By doing it this way, the bolt is always tight, leaving less chance of corrosion setting in between the bolt and the body/frame. It also gives you plenty of room to add as many ground wires as you may need. The wires are held tight between the nuts also allow less corrosion to set in. Later on if you want, you can remove or add a ground without loosing the terminal ground, and if it all turns to mess latter, all you have to do is remove the bolt, clean up the area and install a new bolt. Gene
T-dude....I also work on those rusty-*** snowplow trucks and have found the best way to establish and keep a good gound is to weld a ground bolt [I use a 5/16ths or 3/8ths] to the frame rail and weld a bolt [1/4" will do here] to a spot on the body, floor is ok. You'll never question a ground again. Your fuse panel need not be grounded, in fact I'd rather not have mine grounded. I usually mount my panel on a hunk of s**** clear lexan or plexi. Did you ever look at how I mounted the panel on the 33? I lost all the saved photos of it but I used a piece of s**** lexan for a sanitary look and no chance of an accidental grounding of a hot circuit while changing fuses, making new connections etc.
My way involves running the negative (-) battery cable to the engine block. I also run the smaller (10ga usually) wire on the negative cable to the body using a clean, new bolt. From there, I run a Ford type 'switch to starter' battery cable (yes CABLE!) with an eyelet at each end from the point where the negative cable attatches to the block, on up to the firewall. On the firewall, I install a beefy 'junction block' featuring a 3/8" stud to bolt the switch-to-starter type cable to. Every component inside the car, including the tail lights and such, has a dedicated ground wire running directly to that junction block. Under the hood, the headlights get grounded to the bolt where the 10ga battery ground wire is located, and...in the case of my Chevy, the electric fan is grounded to the engine block. It's overkill, true...but it completely eliminates the chance of a bad ground somewhere causing some weird electrical glitch. The lights and all accessories work perfectly, and each electrical joint is protected with NoOxId brand protectant (a grease that does conduct electricity...looks and feels kinda like ear wax).
I like to run a 2/00 or 3/00 fine strand wire, they use them on welding cable and most good hardware stores should have them. I run from the battery directly to the starter mount or bolt/stud..Both positive and ground. From there I would loop a ground piece to the frame.. This eliminates grounding problems and starting problems.
I prefer running the battery ground directly to the block or trans tail housing if the battery is in the back. I like the old looking flat braided ground straps for the body to block connection. I think they look cool. Starting draws the most amperage and I want the fewest mechanical connections (places for a poor connection) in that circuit. I tried it your way and had starting problems down the road.
I am running the battery - to the engine block, a strap from the engine block to the frame, and a strap from the body to the frame. Probably overkill, but Ive seen some weird things happen because things are not grounded correctly!
I like the 50Dodge4x4 idea and Rocky's. With a central lug. I got some 4 gauge stranded and ground lugs to run a branch circuit from a main ground. And will put vasaline over the connection after its bolted up for corrosion resistance.
If I may, here is an artical I wrote about wiring. If you scan down to near the end of the page, I explain the way I treat grounds. http://www.nesstronics.com/02_2.html
The Jalopy Journal
