Missing engine ground wire . . .

[Ramblin Fever]

temporarily.

Are there any issue's in running without this for a few days?

Other then the volts being a slight tad low, not having any problems. But my mechanic forgot to put the engine ground wire back on the truck after removing the dipstick tube last week.

Can't get back over there for a day or two.

 

[Ugly3]

Nothing good is going to happen.

 

[frankiee]

Yes there could be a problem.
The engine, body, and battery should all be at the same potential.
The engine is on rubber mounts and relies on ground from the cable.
With cars with console shift, it is common for the shift cable to seize because of galvanic corrosion created from the engine trying to ground anywhere it can.
I have read of problems with the hydraulic fluids having problems from faulty grounds.
Also bearings being pitted from poor grounds. You dont want pitted bearings in the trans or other places that are expensive to fix.
Get him or her to put the cable or strap back on or do it your self is my recommondation. ASAP

 

[Ramblin Fever]

Thanks guys - I'll get'er done asap!

 

[Kestas]

This is a classic situation for electric arc damage in automotive wheel bearings. The continuous current leakage through the bearing destroys it in short order. Commonly happens when a mechanic forgets to reattach the ground strap to the engine. Now that wheel bearings are $200-$400 to replace, this is very important.

This was also a well-known problem for the 78-80 Omni/Horizon where the grounding straps corroded. This type of forensic analysis (electrical damage in bearings) takes up a good part of my career nowadays.

 

[TallPaul]

Is this easy to test for? Not only a missing ground, but also a poor ground from corrosion. Can I simply test with an ohm meter between engine and frame, engine and body, and body and frame?

 

[brianl703]

You can use an ohmmeter, but I think it's best to use a voltmeter and check for voltage drop or voltage differential between two parts that should be connected together and grounded (with the engine running and all the accessories turned on).

Voltage drop / differential tells you how effective the ground is. Ideally there will be no voltage differential at all.

 

[1 FMF]

if it didn't already blow up, it'll probably be ok for the next day or so. Depending on what ground wire it was, like a chasis ground, it may not matter... much.

 

[Quest]

While it won't blow up, it will gradually melts the rest of the wire (or your wiring harness/loom) due to increased resistance.

 

[JohnBrowning]

I am suprised your fuel injection is working right! Toyota's usualy have at least 3 grounds under the hood. I have seen Toyota's that barely ran due to a lose ground wire. Many automatic transmissions can quickly self destruct for lack of a good ground!

Get it replaced quickly! Use a quality heavy copper wire if you can and seal and crimp it properly!

 

[Chris142]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kestas:
This is a classic situation for electric arc damage in automotive wheel bearings. The continuous current leakage through the bearing destroys it in short order. Commonly happens when a mechanic forgets to reattach the ground strap to the engine. Now that wheel bearings are $200-$400 to replace, this is very important.

This was also a well-known problem for the 78-80 Omni/Horizon where the grounding straps corroded. This type of forensic analysis (electrical damage in bearings) takes up a good part of my career nowadays.

---

LOL I remember that stuff happening! The 2nd generation Camaro's would damage the shifter cable if a ground was left off.

Most people didn't know any better and just thought that the cable went bad. On these cars they had a shifter in the center console but you could still shift em by grabbing the column with both hands and twisting.

So if you ever saw a Camaro and the owner shifted with both hands wrapped around the column it's a safe bet that t's missing a ground wire somewhere.

 

[srivett]

Maybe that's why our Topaz was a lemon.

We ran it for about 5 years with the engine strap cut in half...

Oh yeah, don't hook your welder ground to a lug nut if you're welding something to the frame.

Steve

 

[JohnBrowning]

offtopic

SOmething funny about 85 Ford Tempo I owned. It kept blowing external voltage regulators. At $5 a pop I was getting soaked. I had the car a few thousand miles maybe 15,000 miles. I bought it used against my will off of a Second LT. (FIrst Mistake). Finaly after replaceing about 6-7 voltage regulators I took it to the Ft. Srewart Automotive CraftShop. I had to get help becasue they will not let anyone other then staff hook up to the engine analyzer. The Tech. went to make the final conection and a bunch of arc's begain jumping from the unit and the last connector about 3Ft. apart like a telsa coil!!! THe Tech. almost had a bowel movement right their. He shut my car off and unhooked the machine and went to get another tech. Niether one could figure it out. SO they told me to take it to Shepard Automotive Electronics and Repair. The tech. took one look at it and figured it out. To make sure he picked up his well used multimeter and gave me a diagnoise's in under 1 minute. The former owner or the person that had worked on it revered the wires on the alternator so the regulator was basicly allowing the alternator to run un regulated. He rewired it charged me $5 and sent me on my way! Never had a problem with that again!

 

[eljefino]

An ohmmeter won't help you much as there are usually a couple small supplementary ground wires in addition to the big honking one between engine and battery.

All will appear fine and dandy with no load but when the starter is drawing hundreds of amps there'll be a huge voltage loss across those little wires, down the speedometer cable, etc.

You could check for a voltage drop between engine and frame/negative battery terminal though, when cranking, should be less than .5 volts.

 

[T-Keith]

Why are you missing it? I've used a pair of jumper cables as a fix for a bad ground cable before. Works great.

 

[Ramblin Fever]

This truck typically has 2 grounds from what I can tell.

Talked to mechanic the other day, he stated that the one ground had been hanging there and melting away lying on the intake manifold - must've came lose at some point. He didn't feel it was doing any good, so he pulled it off and didn't think I needed another as the other side of the engine has one.

And in his mind, it had been missing, per say, for quite some time. Should I get the 2nd one back on?