Ground Straps?

565bbchevy

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Aug 8, 2011
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In both my cars I used 1/0 welding cable for all my grounds and in my Monte with a trunk mounted battery there are many throughout the car.
If you want to make your own cables you can use a hydraulic crimper or even this hammer crimper
 
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64nailhead

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Dec 1, 2014
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There is nothing wrong with overkill when making grounds. But it isn’t necessary. If you battery is in the stock location and you’re not running a bunch of high amp added components I.e. fuel pumps, fans, EFI, stereo, then #2 from engine to battery, then a frame to body, frame to battery, frame to engine block - I use 10 gauge for those.
If you have a bunch of added items like I mentioned above, then have as many of those direct to the battery as possible, but all of them don’t have to be on the battery.

My battery is in the trunk also, and I run 3 fuel pumps - all 3 are grounded on the battery. My fans and meth injection pumps are set to common point that is a very good ground.

The straps you linked, from Amazon, they work well in a stock setup - 3 of those in correct locations would great AFAIC along with the block to battery cable in a STOCKISH type build.
 
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69hurstolds

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Jan 2, 2006
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While there are opinions on how big your ground wires need to be, it could vary on your routing on what you need to properly ground sh*t.

TYPICALLY- and I use that term lightly- your main concern #1 should be ensure whatever size battery cable you use, both positive and negative needs to be the same size. Most people say for fuel lines, bigger is better, and I'll add to that the size of battery cables, IMO. This also goes for power and ground wires to any electrical component. If you use a 14 ga. power wire to your stereo, you should also use a 14 ga or larger ground wire. For the life of me if you've ever seen most factory G-body pos/neg cables, you may mistake them for radio wires. I exaggerate to clarify. Those are some TINY cables. Yet they seem to work. Electrical engineers are smarter than me. All I know is that if I were doing mods, larger battery cables could not hurt.

It appears that you're already set with your battery cables and are looking for accessory grounds. ECMs, alternators, compressor clutches and sensors and other electronic junk could cause an electrical imbalance and those engine to firewall woven straps carry more amps than their size lets on due to their construction as well as being more flexible than a sheathed cable. Don't need much. I've heard of some people using a ground strap on both heads to the firewall but usually when the negative battery cable is attached to the frame. For my own experience, Oldsmobile V8s used negative battery cable to the driver side head all day long.

Regardless of whatever grounding stuff you use, the key is METAL TO METAL contact points. Don't rely on screw/bolt threads alone unless it's like a welded stud or something. Get rid of paint, sealer or anything else that can stop a metal to metal contact. Then you can touch up paint over that, or smear a little sealer goo over it like the factory and protect the area after you get good ground.
 
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Clone TIE Pilot

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Aug 14, 2011
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On Monte Carlos the negative battery cable runs from the battery to the alternator bracket with a side wire from the battery to the inner fender. Then a ground strap from the engine to the firewall. I run an extra ground from engine to frame.

My CVPI has tons of ground straps. Body to hood, trunk lid to body, even 3 way ground strapsfrommframe to body to the tailpipes.
 
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CopperNick

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Feb 20, 2018
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Grounding the tailpipes is not something that I would have considered until I started to read this thread. At some point I have to set up a remote dash for a pair of battery jumper terminals. I normally do not allow direct to battery jumper connections, particularly with the S-10, too many horror stories about power surges and fricaseed wiring/connections. This dash will include an inline fuse on the plus side as a safety in case of a short. Just have to make sure it is good and insulated from the body metal.


Nick
 

Clone TIE Pilot

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Aug 14, 2011
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Grounding the tailpipes is not something that I would have considered until I started to read this thread. At some point I have to set up a remote dash for a pair of battery jumper terminals. I normally do not allow direct to battery jumper connections, particularly with the S-10, too many horror stories about power surges and fricaseed wiring/connections. This dash will include an inline fuse on the plus side as a safety in case of a short. Just have to make sure it is good and insulated from the body metal.


Nick

Cop cars have all sorts of weird extra grounding to reduce interference for their radios.
 

g0thiac

G-Body Guru
Sep 6, 2020
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Working on the 78' Malibu,
car currently has no ground straps to speak of. I'm wasn't sure where to get ground straps, but I found a bunch on amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8J43J25/?tag=gbody-20
Something like this should work right?
Well to be honest haha it depends.

Because for most people- most are able to use a regular strap - as if you upgrade your battery ground, the biggest you should go is 4 gauge.

Absolutely no point in doing 1 or 0 gauge, for a stock vehicle. Now if you are running some electrical upgrades, then fine lol 😎🤘🤘🤘
 

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