cant find a ground

[dairieman36]

just as its says i was trying to spin the starter over to see if it was goin to hit the transmission anywhere so i grab a battery and hooked the positive up to the starter with a jump wire to the selonoid then took the negative and put it on a clean spot on the frame and nothing happen got out the handy test light and on the frame completely bare metal the was no ground it dosent make since was i doing somethin wrong or what?

any suggestions at all would be greatly appreciated at this point... thanks

brian

 

[sle2115]

These trucks are plaqued with poor ground issues. I made up cables and put a ground from the frame to the engine on both sides, up front, from the frame to the cab, from the frame up to where the GP controller grounds, from the cab (used the same bolt that on the outside the frame connects to via an added cable) up to the dash. I have much more stable gauge readings, and about everything works better.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Your ground does not go to the frame, it goes to the motor. The major currents are to and from the motor assembly (starter and alternator). While there is (should be) a body ground to the motor it is not made to handle that kind of current.

 

[dairieman36]

yeah the motor isnt in the truck i had the adapter plate bolted to the tranny and the starter bolted the the plate i got it grounded to the tranny enough to work i just figured that the frame would be a good place for a ground i was wrong live and learn for some reason i thought my old chevy was grounded to the frame

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Well the way that many Ford ground cables run is there is a bracket on a bare spot of the wire that connects to the frame and then the end of the cable runs to the engine. This gives you both a body and engine ground.

Your engine and trans sit on rubber mounts, there is nothing to give a ground path without a wire, except if you had overload springs that happened to be touching the brackets (ground through driveshaft to axle to springs to frame). All of the other drivetrain connections are rubber bushed.