Jump to content

Vehicle Grounds

FL335i

By FL335i
in Modifications & Accessories

 Share

Recommended Posts

FL335i Enthusiast

FL335i

Posted
Posted

Yesterday I decided to go through the electrical system on my truck being it's almost 4yrs old and has 75k on it.  I cleaned up the battery terminals, took the positive battery distribution system apart, even took the hot wire off the alternator.  Everything was cleaned, sanded with 320 sand paper, cleaned with electrical parts cleaner and put back together with dielectric grease.  I'm glad I did this job because the stainless steel connections were starting to gall and it was extremely hard to remove the nuts.  I was scared of snapping the stud off the alternator I used a pry bar to hold the wire lug in place while loosening the nut.  I then followed the smaller ground wire from the battery to the passenger side chassis ground.  Took it apart, clenaed the frame, wire bolt everything up.  glad I did.  the frame coating was in the way and hte wire connection was corroded pretty good.  Again, everything was sanded, and cleaned with electrical parts cleaner and put back together with dielectric grease.  Then wiped clean and sprayed with battery terminal protector spray.  There is another ground wire on the driver side, behind the front wheel.  Did the same thing to it.  It also needed it. 

 

I checked the entire frame for more connections and could not see any.  Now my High SWR readings from my CB antenna mounted in the middle of the roof make sense! There is literally no ground wires from the frame to the body anywhere except under the hood.  By the brake booster there is a ground strap going from the fire wall to the block.  I am going to add some ground wires, connecting the body to the frame.  I'm thinking adding grounds from the frame to both the bed and box, right behind the cab, on both passenger and driver side. And adding a wire from the engine block to the firewall/fenders.  

  • Like 2
Donstar Senior Enthusiast

Donstar

Posted
Posted (edited)

You take incredible care of your truck!  I understand your rationale for adding grounds but I approach this a little differently.  Your bed and cab are grounded to the frame through every nut and bolt but some parts seem to make lousy grounds.  Whenever I've added an electrical component to an aging vehicle I simply run a desperate ground wire.  

Edited by Donstar
  • Like 1
FL335i Enthusiast

FL335i

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Update. Today  I found a frame ground on the driver side, behind the cab.   It's a ground wire on a bed gusset.  Wire runs from the frame up to the gas filler neck area.  I took that one apart at the frame and cleaned the heck out of it also; removed the frame coating and sanded it up nicely.  I made a 10ga wire that goes from that frame bolt to a bed mounting bolt about 6-8" away.  Under the hood I made a 10ga wire up to go from the front of the driver side valve cover area to the LF fender by the fuse box.  I plan on making one more and running it from the battery neg terminal to the RF fender.  Calling it good.

  • Like 1
FL335i Enthusiast

FL335i

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Tell you one thing, so far since I've done my ground and wiring connection cleaning, my horn honking while locking is back to working!!! For the past 2yrs when double pressing the lock button to make the horn honk, it would 90% of the time not honk.  Or you had to press the button a million times for it to finally honk. I think the grounds were affecting the horn on short honks like when locking.   I have yet to have it not honk while locking since the ground cleaning.

  • Like 1
Ravenkeeper Senior Enthusiast

Ravenkeeper

Posted
Posted
On 1/21/2018 at 6:14 AM, FL335i said:

Yesterday I decided to go through the electrical system on my truck being it's almost 4yrs old and has 75k on it.  I cleaned up the battery terminals, took the positive battery distribution system apart, even took the hot wire off the alternator.  Everything was cleaned, sanded with 320 sand paper, cleaned with electrical parts cleaner and put back together with dielectric grease.  I'm glad I did this job because the stainless steel connections were starting to gall and it was extremely hard to remove the nuts.  I was scared of snapping the stud off the alternator I used a pry bar to hold the wire lug in place while loosening the nut.  I then followed the smaller ground wire from the battery to the passenger side chassis ground.  Took it apart, clenaed the frame, wire bolt everything up.  glad I did.  the frame coating was in the way and hte wire connection was corroded pretty good.  Again, everything was sanded, and cleaned with electrical parts cleaner and put back together with dielectric grease.  Then wiped clean and sprayed with battery terminal protector spray.  There is another ground wire on the driver side, behind the front wheel.  Did the same thing to it.  It also needed it. 

 

I checked the entire frame for more connections and could not see any.  Now my High SWR readings from my CB antenna mounted in the middle of the roof make sense! There is literally no ground wires from the frame to the body anywhere except under the hood.  By the brake booster there is a ground strap going from the fire wall to the block.  I am going to add some ground wires, connecting the body to the frame.  I'm thinking adding grounds from the frame to both the bed and box, right behind the cab, on both passenger and driver side. And adding a wire from the engine block to the firewall/fenders.  

My CB antenna is mounted on the right side bedrail, and has a high (2+) SWR.  I'm thinking it's because of the mount isn't ground to the vehicle very well, doesn't have a good ground plane, and I'm looking at going dual antenna to hopefully lower my SWR, even more than grounding my mount.  I'm trying to find a good ground on the right side of the bed, have you found one, other than the filler tube on the left side?

FL335i Enthusiast

FL335i

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Have not found any other bed to frame grounds other than the fuel filler neck.   Again, I added my own bed to frame ground strap, sharing the frame bolt for the fuel filler neck ground.  My headlight flickering BS is also fixed.  So now the truck honks when I lock it and the headlights don't dim with the blinker.  Curious to see if my SWR's are lower now.  I still plan on running a ground wire from the battery negative terminal to the passenger side fender.  know where I got that idea from....  Looked at the grounds on my '89 K5. It has a 10ga wire going from the neg post to the passenger fender along with the main wires to the block and frame.

Edited by FL335i
  • Like 1
  • 2 months later...
Ravenkeeper Senior Enthusiast

Ravenkeeper

Posted
Posted
On 1/23/2018 at 4:30 PM, Ravenkeeper said:

My CB antenna is mounted on the right side bedrail, and has a high (2+) SWR.  I'm thinking it's because of the mount isn't ground to the vehicle very well, doesn't have a good ground plane, and I'm looking at going dual antenna to hopefully lower my SWR, even more than grounding my mount.  I'm trying to find a good ground on the right side of the bed, have you found one, other than the filler tube on the left side?

Come to find out, I put the antenna on my mount bracket incorrectly.  My bracket is getting a great ground with the way it is mounted to the bedrail, especially as long as the "gasket" is on top, between the top of the bedrail and the mount bracket.  Meter SQUEALED at me checking the ground between the mount bracket and the right rear door catch. 

 

As stated elsewhere, bed is grounded through all of the nuts/bolts.  The fuel tube ground is for the fuel going into the truck.

sdeeter19555 Senior Enthusiast

sdeeter19555

Posted
Posted
Come to find out, I put the antenna on my mount bracket incorrectly.  My bracket is getting a great ground with the way it is mounted to the bedrail, especially as long as the "gasket" is on top, between the top of the bedrail and the mount bracket.  Meter SQUEALED at me checking the ground between the mount bracket and the right rear door catch. 
 
As stated elsewhere, bed is grounded through all of the nuts/bolts.  The fuel tube ground is for the fuel going into the truck.
Antenna grounding has little to do with electrical grounding...

2012 2500hd 6.0l CCSB 4wd
Ravenkeeper Senior Enthusiast

Ravenkeeper

Posted
Posted (edited)

They still get grounded to a vehicle ground. 

Edited by Ravenkeeper
sdeeter19555 Senior Enthusiast

sdeeter19555

Posted
Posted

Firestick is the probably the worst resource you could quote.

 

An antenna needs two things, a poise and a counterpoise... it can be completely isolated from the vehicle ground. If what you want to believe was true, the how would a base station work...

 

I'm done here...I have nothing to prove.

 

2012 2500hd 6.0l CCSB 4wd

 

 

 

 

Ravenkeeper Senior Enthusiast

Ravenkeeper

Posted
Posted

Not just Firestik, but several (if not all) other CB antenna sources out there, all state that your mount needs to be grounded.  Magnet mount antennas get "grounded" through the shielding of the coax, back to/through the radio.

 

And to answer your base station question, YES, it gets grounded too.

 

And like you, me and my 30+ years experience are done.

 

 

CB Antenna Ground:

https://www.wearecb.com/testing-cb-antenna-ground.html

https://www.rightchannelradios.com/blogs/troubleshooting-guides/18428219-testing-for-a-ground

https://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/threads/how-do-i-ground-the-antennas.146708/

 

Base Station Ground:

https://itstillworks.com/ground-cb-base-station-antenna-2923.html

https://forums.radioreference.com/cb-radio-forum/348744-cb-base-station-antenna-grounding-question.html

 

sdeeter19555 Senior Enthusiast

sdeeter19555

Posted
Posted

Well, I've seen guys with 60 years of radio experience that don't know the difference between electrical ground and signal properties.

2012 2500hd 6.0l CCSB 4wd



Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Latest Articles

  • Posts

    • Atlas
      Wow I'm in a pickle. (Broke down truck) and a story.

      By Atlas · Posted

      Why don't I have a good scanner? I've always wanted one when I've needed one.   My latest reading says I don't need to do a relearn on the ckp sensor on a 1995 with OBD 1.5. The relearn is prescribed for the later-model 1995's which shipped with actual OBD II when GM completed the transition in prep for the 1996 MY. I need to confirm that. Did you know forums are disappearing? Knuckleheads on Facebook... it's not the same. It's just not.   So, scanners. Again, shooting myself in the foot for having eBayed my Snap On MT2500 "brick" with all the adapters. Not that I couldn't buy another but those are getting quite old, and mine wasn't new enough to work on 2000's vehicles.   Damn it (as I'm scanning my email between paragraphs here). Did you know there's a 2000 Jimmy 2-door on BaT that's ending this morning? It's local. I want it. 14k miles. Absolutely beautiful.   Back to scanners. MT2500's are old. Solus, now that could be a contender. There's a ~2008 Verus with a system error that's basically new in box for cheap. Hmm...I'm not sure about a scanner that runs an archaic version of windows (95 or CE, I can't tell).   I want the ability to reset and rotate TPMS, test individual modules, bleed ABS, electronic parking brake controls for servicing brakes, relearn procedures and other bidirectional controls.   Snap On does an MT2600. It's a new model as of last year, marketed as their "entry" scanner. Entry? Only where $1900 gets you through the doorway plus, I'm guessing, $1000/year if you wish to keep it current. So goes scan tools actually designed for production environments. Want decent products with excellent support, you pay for it.   Everyone is raving about Autels and TopDons and Foxconns and all these newer brands that are selling the $500 "prosumer" scanners for backyard hacks like me. They're tempting...honestly. Updates are cheaper, base prices are remarkably cheaper... And you get to deal with bugs and translation whoopsies and, well, just don't use it on anything expensive, OK? Having a dealer replace an ECU because it needs to be re-imaged after an adventure in scanning is no joke. But I think most people are getting by OK with these units.   eBay on a scratch-and-sniff pro-model oldie, a shiny new TopDon, or???   God dang it, I can't stop looking at this Jimmy. I'm ready! I'll Bring The TRailer! It's beautiful.
    • Texasdeere
      What have you done to your K2 today?

      By Texasdeere · Posted

      I removed the OE running boards.  It looked so much better.  I wish I took them off a long time ago.     I had to put something back on for my wife.  I wanted Westin Sure Grip Running Boards but they are very pricey, like $600 plus.  I was going to go with the Ionic 41's like I had on the 2019 Silverado but went with Westin Outlaw Drop Steps instead, about $200 cheaper.  They are sturdy and functional but not super crazy about the look, but it works.  
    • Atlas
      Gas Prices

      By Atlas · Posted

      It's all a crock of 💩
    • fondupot
      Disable DRL's

      By fondupot · Posted

      I had a Gen5DIY DRL relocate harness from a 2022 1500 that I saved. I had Gen5DIY modify the harness for my 2024 Silverado 2500. Plug n Play, worked perfectly.    Here's a video I made for the 2022 1500 truck. The install is more or less the same on a 2500.    The harness relocates the DRL tot he top amber turn signal on my 2500.     
    • CamGTP
      Gas Prices

      By CamGTP · Posted

      Can ask that about a lot of places.   Holiday sells 91 for $1 over 87 octane. BP 93 is 80 cents. Amoco 93 is 80 cents Kwik Trips is $1.20 for 92 or whatever they have and $1 for the 91.   I know that this is not exactly same as what you are saying with the premium to premium debate of those two stations but why is there such a difference. Top Tier this and that, it's all BS. All the fuel comes from the same damn refinery, so give me a break.

  • GM-Trucks.com Clubs

  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...