violacleff Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 I tried starting up the car for the first time yesterday and when I went to spin it one of the ground wires that goes to the intake manifold (I have it on the firewall) completely fried. What happened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onovakind67 Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Sounds like your engine block isn't grounded directly to the battery with a cable as big as the positive cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
violacleff Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 OOh I think your on to something, I may have grounded it to the wall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRJoe Posted December 4, 2004 Share Posted December 4, 2004 BIG ground wire from engine to frame, BIG ground wire from battery to frame. Make to the there's enough wire to allow for flex due to engine torque in the engine to frame wire. I have a braided strap from the engine to the frame, and smaller braided straps from the engine mounts to the frame. Can't have too much engine to frame ground. - Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mtbrider586 Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 Ground wires are very important. They will take the path of least resistance. In school, (Auto tech) the told us about a car that the ground cable was not hooked up so the ground went through the speedo cable which eventually stopped working when it melted down. So good grounds to engine and chassis. Also be mindful I have seen mechanics mistaken a bad ground connection for a starter motor. After the guy switched battery and starter motor and he still got a click. I came over with a volt meter and did a voltage drop test. One probe to the battery ground and the other to the engine block. Have someone turn the key . ASE says no more the a .3 volts. I read 4 volts on the meter. works for the positive side too . You either go neg to neg or positve to positve . while putting the circuit under load. Another good test is a circuit load test. Lets say you undo a connector and read 12 volts, then plug it in an the lights don't work or radio or ecu. ect. the meter is showing open circuit voltage without a load. I will put a driving light bulb on it to see if it lights up. if it does not it tells me there is a voltage drop in the circuit. so don't trust that just because there is 12 volts there unloaded that the circuit is good. I had a efi relay do just that the othere day on a 280z 12 volts in 8.5 coming out. not enough to for the injectors. You guy can email me anytime mtbrider586@sbcglobal.net I am a drivabilty diagnostic smog tech ASE Master 20 years now. And just joined . Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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