Good Grounds

[Artworks]

Well I been having some thing happining the past week, I go to start, and half the warning lights won't work.
The wait to start / glow lite won't, so I get no start, till I pull then eng, or ecm fuse, and put it back. Glow lite on and will start . So I go and tighten and add grounds on engine/ fire wall & chassis.
Works for a day, then it happens again. I check the ground from the glow to back of block behind the fuel filter. I find the connector has bad wire just holding by a couples strands. Change & retighten, I have to pull a fuse to reset things. That does it and , to top it off, my airbag lite which has been on for over a year ( and I did't get time to take it to the dealer) goes out !!!
GO TO THE GROUND when some electrical isn't working!
Oh, one more thing, my Trans temp gauge has been acting flacky ( bounces around) fro a few months, My alternator cramped out ( Remand couple years old) Put in a new Bosch unit, now my gauge hasn't acted up for couple weeks !!
I figure I would pass this bit of experiance on.

[Robyn]

The wiring on these trucks can give terrible fits after they get some serious time on them.

If salt is used on the roads it compounds any and all electrical issues.

The grounds are of great importance and will cause more grief than so many can imagine.

Once a ground is lost, the current will search for a way to satisfy, and if that means backfeeding through some other device, it will.

Some years I replaced the coil in an HEI distributor on an 86 GMC 454

I got disturbed halfway though installing the new coil into the new cap and forgot to install the ground wire into the setup.

Truck started and ran fine, Intermitent wipers would work every time the accelerator was pressed down and a load placed on the engine.

Pulled my hair out, until I found the ground wire laying on the bench :eek:

Installed the ground and poof :) Joy again.


Sadly the manufactures install gounds in the damndest places and some are really tough to locate without a wiring book for the truck.

Using the sheetmetal of the body is an easy fix but does leave some issues.

My Western Star uses a separate ground wire for every system.
This eliminates a lot of the electrolysis issues and other ground related troubles that pop up.

Broken wires and crimp connectors that have corroded can make for some misserable times fore sure.

Glad you got it fixed.


Missy

[racedaymechanic]

I made a complete set of cables out of 0/2 wire for my 98 dually project truck i also made a new glow plug harness for it all out of mil spec high temp wire, and put heat shield over it, if I get a chance I will take some pics