hacked89
Full Access Member
Grounding is the most overlooked, critical component of your electrical systems function. In your vehicles electric system the power flows towards the negative terminals. Your truck doesn’t care how the grounds are bolted but it’s going to find the least resistant path to flow. That includes if you don’t have a good primary ground design, and your high amp components flow through your secondary grounding straps while you smell a funny burning and the gauges occasionally dance, it will do it.
I’ve done various configuration testing on my run stand, and if you have a question about a scenario, ask. This is the best setup I’ve found for the primary grounds. There are many combinations to do this and aslong as you follow the basic principles your fine. This is just to visually help someone that may be lost with an example. There are also a number of secondary grounds via small straps and black wires in the harness as well as black with white stripe that won’t be covered here.
Let’s get started.
The most thirsty component for a good ground on your truck is the starter solenoid bolted to your bell housing followed by the starter relay on the passenger fender. These two locations should be a high focus of your attention if you deviate from the stock wiring diagram, which I do in this example.
Many threads of why does my starting system click, work poorly, not work are tied to this area of the truck. Your starter relay even gets its ground through the fender. Any ground should be free from paint, and I used a thin layer of dialectic.
High level summary of your basic requirements:
1. ground from each negative terminal on the batteries to front of block
2. engine to chassis
3. engine to body
4. body to chassis
Example:
You can see the battery to front of block and locations, the chassis tie in and the body tie in
The body tie in leads to the passenger side fender:
The body gets a dedicated ground from the drivers side. I’m not a fan of grounding off the heads or back of the block.
Dedicated ground for starter:
Dedicated ground for alternate:
Let me know if you have any questions.
I’ve done various configuration testing on my run stand, and if you have a question about a scenario, ask. This is the best setup I’ve found for the primary grounds. There are many combinations to do this and aslong as you follow the basic principles your fine. This is just to visually help someone that may be lost with an example. There are also a number of secondary grounds via small straps and black wires in the harness as well as black with white stripe that won’t be covered here.
Let’s get started.
The most thirsty component for a good ground on your truck is the starter solenoid bolted to your bell housing followed by the starter relay on the passenger fender. These two locations should be a high focus of your attention if you deviate from the stock wiring diagram, which I do in this example.
Many threads of why does my starting system click, work poorly, not work are tied to this area of the truck. Your starter relay even gets its ground through the fender. Any ground should be free from paint, and I used a thin layer of dialectic.
High level summary of your basic requirements:
1. ground from each negative terminal on the batteries to front of block
2. engine to chassis
3. engine to body
4. body to chassis
Example:
You can see the battery to front of block and locations, the chassis tie in and the body tie in
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The body tie in leads to the passenger side fender:
You must be registered for see images attach
The body gets a dedicated ground from the drivers side. I’m not a fan of grounding off the heads or back of the block.
You must be registered for see images attach
Dedicated ground for starter:
You must be registered for see images attach
Dedicated ground for alternate:
You must be registered for see images attach
Let me know if you have any questions.
