What's the state of the art in connecting to ground on my f100?
I've earthed a lot of stuff in the last 40 years but all for mostly very protected
Environments. What steps do you take to ensure a long lasting connection?
Thanks. Bill

 

Bill

an old grounder like you surely knows that the frame is 1/2 of the electrical circuit in a car... so anywhere you have electrical circuits has to have a return path to the frame... i.e. fiberglass fenders with lights... the lights need a ground wire that attaches to the frame... where a metal fender would serve the purpose in stock trucks.
engine block to frame. front sheet metal to frame (so headlights get a good ground , cab to ground (frame) it's insulated pretty well by cab mounts... bed to frame... don't rely on the bed mounting bolts... so, basicaly anything that sits on the frame should have a good grounds cable with terminals attached at each end... flat braid is good and flexible but stranded copper will work also... you can get by with a lighter gauge on the body parts but use a serious cable on the engine to frame... starter needs amperage capability, coming and going... a #4 starter cable and a #12 ground won't do. I've got yards of #8 mainframe computer insulated ground cable... fine strand like welding cable and I plan to use that.

grind to bare metal at every connection... I'd add some dialectic grease between terminals and frame or body part and use starred washers to dig into the metal... If you're worried about rust give it all a shot of clear after everything is torqued down.. I try to solder/crimp/heat shrink every connector. but I'm a little ocd. Years ago as a ham operator operating mobile we even grounded exhaust systems to cut down on the noise and stray r.f. I've heard of a ham running a high power mobile rig in a VW sedan... everytime he keyed the mike it killed the engine... he was drowning the computer in the car with rf. VW was at a loss for a fix... finally he built a solid copper cage for the computer and of course it was grounded and fixed his problem...

I personally don't think you can 'over ground'. Lot's of young folks don't remember ignition noise in an am radio !!


later,
John

 

I ran supplemental ground wires from the headlight buckets and taillight brackets all the way to a grounding stud on the firewall. That lug is in turn connected directly to the engine block. On the interior of the cab all grounds for the dash and radio come to the other side of that stud.

 

wow, I like that di-electric, clear and home runs. couldn't be simpler. thanks guys.