Re: Extra Ground straps/locations <long>

[T Berk <tberk@mindspring.com>]

Christopher Mueller wrote:
> 
> Thinking about replacing the existing negative ground from the battery and
> adding another ground strap in some strategic location.  Any guidance on
> what to ground?  Alternator to engine? Starter to engine?
> 
> Thanks in adavnce.
> Christopher
> 87 16V
> 
> _______

Seek out surplus supply places that deal in welding cable, industrial,
marine, electronics, etc. You can get some good deals on heavy gauge
cable, once you install it you won't have to worry about it any more. 
Your looking for some stuff with the ends already installed, finished
and even nice looking for pennies on the pound.   :)

Some good ideas on the large side electricals in the engine bay:

- Neg. post goes to both the chassis & Eng. block, but under the battery
tray. Often leads to stray acid by products and corrosion and general
nastiness. The is is a great place to upgrade your wires with cable that
is sheathed and durable.

- Hot side: Pos 12v battery post to starter makes a great improvement in
turning the engine over. YMMV but this goes hand in hand with he other
upgrades to leave an area undone.  

- The Alt CASE on later cars gets a ground wire, good retrofit for early
models. Easy spot is from one of those stubs that stick out the back
over to a valve cover gasket stud. Even better might be right to the
block itself, lots of stuff on the front. You want to maintain both a
good electrical connection as well as avoid destabilizing the mechanical
purpose of what you are tying into. (Common sense req. here).

- Early Alts came with the twin blade style connections, usually only
put out 55/65 amps, later 90 ampers came with a bolt on 12v+ post, but
if you upgrade you will need to retrofit the end of the mail cable.   
(There is the offset of the pulley to take into account as well here,
the length of the shaft on A/C vs non A/C cars is different.)

- You will want to get the contacts of each mating metal component back
to bright metal before reattaching. This apples to Headlight sockets and
ground points and the fuse box, etc., etc. Small connectors can be
spruced up with contact cleaner and a few refits to wipe the crud away,
large areas can benefit from ultra fine sand paper or a brass brush.
After cleaning the oxidation off you will want to coat the exposed metal
with a light coat of something to keep the O2 out in the future. If you
have nothing else you can use petroleum jelly, although use caution on
the small stuff because it can weaken rubber and some plastic components
over time. Stabilant 22 is a good product (disclaimer- It is my golden
challis, haven't tried it yet personally) is used by the sneaky VW techs
but the won't sell it over the counter. <sigh> 

- A ground strap should connect: the Engine block to Battery Neg Post &
chassis, the Alt case or shell, the chassis of the car to a heavy
amplifier case,  the enging block to the nut holding the COIL is a good
one to- fits right from the back of the valve cover to the bbracket
holding it in place, there is a braided strap from the hood to the
fender (replace if melted from age), etc, etc.

Could go on but it's the end of the day and i'm ooutta here, anybody
think of something i fogot? Replay but pls trim the text to a min for
the sake of our digest bretheren.

hth,
TBerk

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