In case there's any doubters re: grounding.

[68gmsee]

I want to thank all of you who have been telling us, for quite some time, that we need to make sure we have good grounding on these old trucks. I thought mine was ok but found out I was wrong.

I did a search to find out what the rest of you all are doing and decided to do the same. Seems that on these old trucks the rust, dirt and grime builds up on the bolts to the cab, frame and bed and we loose good contact.

Here's my experience.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to reposition the bed. It was slightly off center. That's when my rear lights decided to do some weird stuff.

I had no rear lights and no brake lights with the light switch on. If I turned light switch off, my brakes lights worked. Also license plate light decided not to work either. My rear blinkers stopped working.

All this time I thought I had a good grounding on the truck. I did a search to find out what the rest of you all are doing and decided to do the same.

Action plan: Went to the local auto parts and bought 3 braided cables and one 19 inch black ground cable. Box of assorted star washers.

Ground cable from block to the frame.
Ground cable to the radiator support.
Ground cable from cab to frame.
Ground cable from bed to frame.
Made sure I had good clean connections and put star washers on all the ends.

All my lights are working and even look brighter. And the bonus, my alternator guage started to work. I had thought I had a bad guage...

[dan42]

Cool! I'm probably gonna try that. I'm having a couple of goofy problems in my '67 as well with the instrument panel. Thanks for the heads up.

[71big block]

I've seen bad grounds cause the wierdest problems, dash lights blinking with turn signials, radio coming on with brakes, ect. I've learned that when something wierd happens electrialy always check the grounds first.

[68gmsee]

Originally Posted by 71big block

I've seen bad grounds cause the wierdest problems, dash lights blinking with turn signials, radio coming on with brakes, ect. I've learned that when something wierd happens electrialy always check the grounds first.

Man, I hear ya.. I thought I had gremlins in there after I all the weird problems.

[snaus32]

Great post I'm going to re-wire my 67 this weekend with a new kit from ez wiring none of my gauges currently work so I'm guessing that the grounds are bad now. Or it could be the 10k splices in the harness what a mess. Found a bunch of wires that were exposed with no insulation. lol no heat either. I'm a mazed it never smoked.

[68gmsee]

Originally Posted by dan42

Cool! I'm probably gonna try that. I'm having a couple of goofy problems in my '67 as well with the instrument panel. Thanks for the heads up.

Even if it's not the problem now, it may prevent some in the future (as in my case). It certainly was weird. Worked one week and then go to check and they're all screwed up..

[jeffspower]

Yep, most weird electrical problems are from poor grounds. Always the first thing to check. Many OE's have gone to the extreme on new trucks- they put battery cable size ground cables from one frame rail to the other- not trusting bolts/ rivets in the crossmembers. Most have gotten away from star washers also- and for good reason. I hate them. In the rust belt, road salt gets into them & you loose connection. A flat shouldered nut with dielectric grease or sealer is best. Same goes for the starter connections.

[imholte]

Originally Posted by 68gmsee

Ground cable from block to the frame.
Ground cable to the radiator support.
Ground cable from cab to frame.
Ground cable from bed to frame.
Made sure I had good clean connections and put star washers on all the ends.
.

"ground cable to the radiator support" ? Where does this one tie into?

[C10-Driver]

Originally Posted by imholte

"ground cable to the radiator support" ? Where does this one tie into?

I went from a point near the front of the frame into one of the bolts that holds the lower radiator "cradles" in place... It doesn't really matter where you ground as long as there is good metal to metal contact on the ground strap.

I will confirm what others have said... My headlights, brake lights, etc are super bright. Nobody can convince me that the lights in these old trucks are just supposed to be dim because they're old... Mine are as bright as any I've seen - old or new.

[68gmsee]

Originally Posted by imholte

"ground cable to the radiator support" ? Where does this one tie into?

Actually, I put a braided cable directly from the battery ground post to the radiator support. There was a threaded hole on top and just used it.

[Longhorn Man]

take it one step furhter,,, locate the 2 grounding points on the rad core support, remove them, clean them, reinstal, and realize your headlights are brighter. A former member told me when i did hers a few years ago "It's like it's someone else's truck" (first ohio board meet... 03 I think)

[cdowns]

it never ceases to amaze me the dollars people will throw at a problem while being told repeatedly BAD GROUND and refuse to take a few bolts out and use a piece of sandpaper to establish a good ground to complete a circuit

[68gmsee]

Originally Posted by cdowns

it never ceases to amaze me the dollars people will throw at a problem while being told repeatedly BAD GROUND and refuse to take a few bolts out and use a piece of sandpaper to establish a good ground to complete a circuit

Yep... The problem occurs when the trucks work fine all these years and all of a sudden weird things start to happen. We start chasing the gremlins around.

But, since I've been reading the posts about grounding and the recommendations by everyone, it helped me make a quick determination.

Longhorn Man's comment about "overkill" on his truck was right on. Can't have enough grounding...

[ed2552]

Could my starter be malfunctioning b/c of a bad ground?

[cdowns]

Originally Posted by ed2552

Could my starter be malfunctioning b/c of a bad ground?

a perfect example the time it took to type and hope for a responce you could have taken a piece of sandpaper and gotten your answer

[Longhorn Man]

ed the starter is bolted directly to the engine, which is where the neg cable should be ... odds are, no. Whie it IS possible in theory, I have never heard of nor seen this ever happening.

[prg machine]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Man

ed the starter is bolted directly to the engine, which is where the neg cable should be ... odds are, no. Whie it IS possible in theory, I have never heard of nor seen this ever happening.

Along the lines of this subject, I just had an alternator rebuilt, the stock one with the external regulator. The black wire that led to it for ground had all of the insulation toasted off of it....it had gotten extremely hot at some point. I asked the owner of the rebuild shop what he thought caused it............he knew exactly what caused it... a bad ground lead from the battery to the block or a corroded connection..... then what happens is that small wireon the alternator for the ground becomes a ground source for the big juice required to turn your starter!!!!

He also said he has seen older cars that had a choke cable and the owner went to pull it and there was nothing................the cable had 'broken' (actualy burnt in two)!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, you guessed it !!!!!!!!!!!! The cable became the ground strap for the engine.

[ed2552]

Ok, i guess i deserve that, the thing is just po'ing me. I do need to check my grounds. That is for tomorrow morning since there is no school.

[cdowns]

nobody mentioned the two ground wires from the firewall to the valve covers//i always went to bigger gauge wire on them and put them to the accessory holes in the back of the heads so to clean up the looks of the engine

[Longhorn Man]

Originally Posted by cdowns

nobody mentioned the two ground wires from the firewall to the valve covers//i always went to bigger gauge wire on them and put them to the accessory holes in the back of the heads so to clean up the looks of the engine

if the frame and cad are grounded, and the engien and frame, there's absolutly no reason to add the clutter of the valve cover straps.
Personally, i've always thought those were retarded myself.

[ed2552]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Man

if the frame and cad are grounded, and the engien and frame, there's absolutly no reason to add the clutter of the valve cover straps.
Personally, i've always thought those were retarded myself.

How about we also ground the camshaft, just to be sure,

[jeffspower]

We could go even further... electrolosis. Take a DVOM neg. lead to the battery neg. post, and stick the pos. lead into the coolant in your radiator. You might be surprised what you see. Corrosion isn't the only thing that damages radiators, heater cores, and in extreme cases... blocks.

[jgrh64]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Man

if the frame and cad are grounded, and the engien and frame, there's absolutly no reason to add the clutter of the valve cover straps.
Personally, i've always thought those were retarded myself.

I have had many old vehicles(rust belt) and if you don't like the look of valve cover to firewall then please run it somewhere else, I had a cable shifter melt because of a bad ground here(power flowed through cable for ground), others had slow starting issues -you need battery to frame, to engine, to firewall (body),to core support, to bed

[Longhorn Man]

Originally Posted by jgrh64

I have had many old vehicles(rust belt) and if you don't like the look of valve cover to firewall then please run it somewhere else, I had a cable shifter melt because of a bad ground here(power flowed through cable for ground), others had slow starting issues -you need battery to frame, to engine, to firewall (body),to core support, to bed

You missed where I said the engine gets grounded to the frame. Aesthetically there is much better ways of doing it, and ways that won't have you cussing when you go to remove a valve cover.
I go overboard on gounds. On my longhorn, (daul batterys) I have one battery grounded to the frame, the other one directly to the block. I have always felt that hooking it to an Alt bracket was half assing it (GM's 70's idea). Then the block is grounded to the frame, the core support is grounded to the frame with a fairly massive braided strap, the cab and bed are both grounded to the frame, a strap on the frame, and a 1/0 cable on the bed. I have NEVER had a ground problem on any of my trucks after I go in and ground them the way I want them done.
When I was a teen, I had an 81 Citation crap box, and the lights and wipers and everything would dim at an idle and upon deceleration. I knew the idle dimming wasn't too much to worry about, but the deceleration dimming seemed odd. I then realized that sitting in neutral with my foot off the clutch, that reving it did nothing to produce more power. I later discovered that my engine to body small straps had been left out, and it was grounding the whole car through the clutch cable. I saw it arching one night when i had the hood up do give my dad a jump. I had that car for about a year, and my dad had if for 3 or 4 years prior, and it had ALWAYS done the dimming thing. I ran a wire, and all problems were gone. My old man felt like a tool, and his so-called mechanic buddy looked like a retard since he charged my dad like 5 hrs labor and still come up empty handed as to why the car did this.

[ed2552]

How about every time you get in your truck you ground yourself to the frame to eliminate all issues?