Have you checked your ground?

[projo198]

I feel ya. Had a nightmare getting all the lights to work on my '76. Still needed some other things but my first step was adding ground straps to the motor, frame, cab and bed. You really can't "over" ground a vehicle.

 

[Ricko1966]

Okay,as long as your frame,body and engine have a good ground to battery that's all you need. As long as all other grounds go to one of those 3 components you are in good shape. The frame body,or engine block can conduct more current than anything you would ever run through them,that's why GM did it that way. Don't believe me? Hook your positive starter lead to the block the block won't melt,you will burn off a battery post or cable. Same with the frame,same with the body,you will never exceed their ground capability.

 

[Jgonick]

But which way does electricity really flow? Positive to neg or Neg to pos?-- I know "conventional current".(even though it's wrong)


If you are curious-LINK

 

[ChuckN]

I finished a re-wire of my 77 a few months back. One of the things I did was to completely create new grounding points with threaded studs and nuts/washers

1 - underneath bed between fuel tanks
1 - at rear fram
1 - at firewall, next to fuse block
1 - at driver side fender
1 - at driver side frame, next to block
1 - at passenger side frame, next to block

All of these ground points are daisy chained together using long battery cables with eyelets, bolted to the studs. Each stud can act as a grounding point. When I have something I need to ground, it just goes to the nearest stud and connected with another eyelet

I did something similar with out old ‘54 3100. The frame was pretty corroded being from Michigan, rust everywhere. Rather than rely on the frame for ground current, I ended up using a Ron Francis ground harness with connecting studs bolted to the frame intermittently, inside the rails and out of sight. I ran everything up to near the starter, put one major ground stud there and tied in all the other grounds (cab/body/engine) there, and ran a 0/1 gauge cable to the battery from there.

That said, it was a very simple vehicle to wire as it had no accessories and was even still on a generator- the only thing that was done (before me) was the conversion to 12V.

 

[Camar068]

But which way does electricity really flow? Positive to neg or Neg to pos?-- I know "conventional current".(even though it's wrong)


If you are curious-LINK

current flow is positive to negative, electron flow is opposite. Not going to get into it any further....google is you friend

 

[Hunter79764]

current flow is positive to negative, electron flow is opposite. Not going to get into it any further....google is you friend

Now, to throw it all for another loop... There is a really good chance that early on, when "electrons" and electrical charges were just being sorted out, that the convention was set up and agreed upon by a few guys, then the realized that they might have sort-of kind-of switched which charge was which, and just decided to pencil whip the definition that a rubber rod will become negative charged when rabbit fur is rubbed on it, and called it good. Kind of like my twin sister-in-laws that *Might* have been switched as babies, but now we just know them as the name they have gone by for 99.9% of their lives, and it doesn't really matter anymore...

 

[Jgonick]

Positive to neg or Neg to pos?-

I probably should not of stirred the pot- for the vast majority of people, it doesn't matter.
When I was in college, I actually had professors get extremely mad with each other arguing over this topic.

 

[AuroraGirl]

I feel ya. Had a nightmare getting all the lights to work on my '76. Still needed some other things but my first step was adding ground straps to the motor, frame, cab and bed. You really can't "over" ground a vehicle.

you can over ground in that you run delicate grounds over with very harsh/rough grounds. like a computer accuracy reading

 

[DoubleDingo]

dirty grounds refer to high amperage grounds at the same location as low amperage ones. The TBIs early on had an issue with this, the engine ground either studed to the same spot as the PCM grounds iirc on the water neck
some components could end up badly grounded when the ground straps would not be on, because insulating materials between components (plastics)

I was playing off the adage, "Who's a dirty girl".

BUT! I did learn something by watching those videos you posted up, and need to re-look at a supplemental ground I added to my Cherokee. I don't think I included high amp components on it, but I did add a larger 10 gauge wire. The ground in question is from the intake to the firewall, and of course the intake has the TPS, IAC, and another acronym sensor that I can't recall at the moment. If it's not including high amp components it should be fine.

 

[AuroraGirl]

I was playing off the adage, "Who's a dirty girl".

BUT! I did learn something by watching those videos you posted up, and need to re-look at a supplemental ground I added to my Cherokee. I don't think I included high amp components on it, but I did add a larger 10 gauge wire. The ground in question is from the intake to the firewall, and of course the intake has the TPS, IAC, and another acronym sensor that I can't recall at the moment. If it's not including high amp components it should be fine.

as long as the exact spot is doing the pcm controls, putting the other strap anywhere else would probably be fine, even if its physically nearby on the firewall.

what cherokee? i was underhood a 2001 grand cherokee and a 4.7 has 2 studs on each bank , there is a possibility the intake components dont ground , seeems to me a lot of them tie back to these. which then strap to the firewall or battery (?)

 

[DoubleDingo]

as long as the exact spot is doing the pcm controls, putting the other strap anywhere else would probably be fine, even if its physically nearby on the firewall.

what cherokee? i was underhood a 2001 grand cherokee and a 4.7 has 2 studs on each bank , there is a possibility the intake components dont ground , seeems to me a lot of them tie back to these. which then strap to the firewall or battery (?)

91 XJ. There is a ground from the intake to the firewall. I added a supplemental ground, but now I need to check it.

 

[AuroraGirl]

91 XJ. There is a ground from the intake to the firewall. I added a supplemental ground, but now I need to check it.

just find out wherer your sensors ground to. on a lot of GM, they would ground to a spot, on the engine, and then the engines ground to battery would not be near it, and nothing non-pcm would share the spefific ground.

 

[DoubleDingo]

just find out wherer your sensors ground to. on a lot of GM, they would ground to a spot, on the engine, and then the engines ground to battery would not be near it, and nothing non-pcm would share the spefific ground.

Yes. Until I watched those videos I didn't know about different grounds, that is why I am going to check the one I'm talking about, and also check any others whether factory or not just to make sure.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Yes. Until I watched those videos I didn't know about different grounds, that is why I am going to check the one I'm talking about, and also check any others whether factory or not just to make sure.

yay. A good way to prevent a problem on your engine related grounds is to ground wire the starter or the alternator in addition to factory grounding. that alone would make a dirty ground much less likely.


Also, the body grounds can chain but id only do so before the battery, like firewall, fender, hood at one spot, then to battery