ckolander Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Okay so my bone stock 79 s130 has had some electrical gremlins and from what I could gather it was a ground issue. So I tear into the wiring looms to check the quality of the grounds, see if there's any corroded or burnt areas, lo and behold there was both, however my issue lies elsewhere. Datsun in their infinite 70's wisdom decided to run a main ground wire from the battery/body straight to the alternator with about eleventy-million small grounds coming off of it at various points, one spot splitting in half with the other side going to the engine block. Now I have removed a few extraneous items such as the injector fan, a/c, underhood light, and something else. Now my question is, is it okay to simplify the ground wire nest, remove all the extra grounds for removed items, run directly from batt/body to alt and from there to block? Basically taking the factory stack of y'd wires and making a big triangle(continuous circuit). I figure this should be plenty fine but was hoping for some input before I start cutting the wires up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddjob Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Try searching on "star ground" which will yield some interesting results. The idea of cleaning up un-used grounds sounds attractive at first, but you may want to consider the rule of unanticipated consequences, which is likely to bite you. The Z is unibody construction, not a frame, as you probably know. I have measured the grounds to various points, and have found readings from a few ohms up to about 250 ohms. I ended up using a star ground, which measures below the meter resolution (<1 ohm) to each connected load. Works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckolander Posted July 15, 2011 Author Share Posted July 15, 2011 Ok new question, there's a little ?capacitor? hooked to to ignition coil and that ground wire is totally shot, how necessary is that capacitor thingy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewZed Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 It's there to keep voltage spikes out of your wring harness and away from electric components. Kind of like insurance for your ECU (or whatever they call it on the 79 ZX). The wire is actually the positive (hot) lead, the body of the capacitor is the ground. You can find them in the junk yard. A lot of Fords have them, easily accessible, if you can't find a ZX. Or an alternator condenser/capacitor from an auto parts store will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckolander Posted July 15, 2011 Author Share Posted July 15, 2011 Thank you, the wiring on mine is shot so I think it's time to replace it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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