I found on my 53 that I bought that it only had a ground wire from the battery to the frame. I added a ground strap from the frame in the engine compartment to the engine block. I am thinking I should have a ground from the block to the body. I was wondering should the ground from the battery run up to the block then to the frame and body? If I do not have a good enough ground, could it cause issues with the starter?

 

Yep, you got it. The main power user is the starter, so ground the starter direct from the batt, then a ground cable from starter to the frame, not sure if a cab ground is critical or not, but it could be 10 ga. or so from the battery depending on where it is mounted.

 

Old F1.... thank you for your reply. Not sure I understand what you mean to ground the starter direct from the battery. The battery is still under the floor on the right side. Are you saying to run the ground from the batt and attach it directly to the starter? Would it attach to the larger post on the selenoid and then run a ground from there to the frame?

 

No,..ground cable from battery to one of the starter mounting bolts (or engine block) and then from there to the frame. Keep ground away from the solenoid, big big sparks! How does Julie's picture show it done?

 

NO, don't mix your grounds with the power, and keep the ground cables away from the starter solenoid!!!!!!! Yikes you'll be welding in there!

12 volt negative ground system:

GROUND:

I have mine going from Negative Battery Post to engine block, bolted on with the starter mounting bolt.

Then, I ran a second battery type cable to the frame from there. I also ran a woven strap from the frame to the cab to ensure all my do dads had a good ground.

I had to run a strap from frame to my front fender/windbreak bolt. With the full front tilt, there was not enough solid contact through the hinge pin to keep the lights from flickering. You shouldn't have to worry about that, but it wouldn't hurt to have a strap up there to help out the headlights and horns.

One other thing I did was make two short (14-16 inches long) 14 AWG pigtails with eyelets on the ends and bolted one end on the tail light mounting stud, and the other end bolted to a ground off clean spot on the frame. With the powder coated tail light brackets, stainless screws and bolts, and painted stake pocket, I figured it wouldn't hurt to make sure I had a redundant ground for the tail lights.

POWER:

Runs from the positive battery post up to the large "B" post of the starter solenoid. Then another battery type cable runs from the opposite large post on the Starter Solenoid, down to the stud that comes out of the side of the starter.