Non Mustang ground question.

[Pakrat 1,043]

So I have had this weird gremlin in my 04 Grand Cherokee lately where it sometimes acts like the battery is dead or dying and barely starts, even left me stranded one night and wouldn't start, everything reads 14+ volts though. It started to happen on a few of those mornings when it was below zero and it would start just fine when I put the charger on set to 75 boost cranking amps. I started to go thru the system over the weekend cleaning terminals and such and I see that my braided ground strap is a disintegrated 3" long piece of corroded crap hanging off my firewall. I assume this is probably the culprit for the strain on the system and it's no big deal to buy another one except that I'll be damned if I can see where the hell the other end is supposed to go. I assume to the block around the cylinder head but in these newer cars where the engine is crammed into the bay with no room for even a finger I can't even look for it like a blind man.

 

I guess my question is can I just connect a new one to just about anywhere on the block I can reach and be OK? I don't want to accidentally ground something I shouldn't and fry something, I have no idea on computer controlled cars what is safe and what isn't like my Stang.

 

Or better yet can anyone show me exactly where it goes or a have access to a diagram or something?

[StephenC 10]

There should be 2 ground straps on it one going from the rear driver side head to the firewall and the other going from passenger side block to I think the fender or sub frame.

 

As for grounding it somewhere else I would say that it would be OK as long as its still grounding from the head to the firewall or block to wherever

Edited February 7, 2011 by StephenC

[dzahm 10]

a ground is a ground- it shouldn't matter where you ground to (unless slipping in around another wire thought to be a ground but is actually hot) You should be able to find the other end- can you get a small mirror back behind the head/intake area? It takes practice to really be adept at this but you can see into some impossible locations. Oh be sure if you decide to ground to a new location that the new place is metal (some newer cars have plastic intake manifolds, and other crap you wouldn't think is plastic)

[Fordrevhead 29]

I would retorque the starter bolts for good measure as well.

[Pakrat 1,043]

OK, thanks for all the comments, I'll have to dig around it and see what I can see, there are so many damn vacuum lines and hard line tubes and crap in the way that getting a mirror or anything behind the block is a real issue without pretty much taking the whole thing apart. With all the ice and slush in my driveway I really didn't feel like crawling under either and I'm not rolling my stang out to get it in the garage in this weather that's for sure. I couldn't believe all the parts I had to remove and disconnect last spring just to put in new plugs. This ground BTW was on the passenger side firewall so I never even thought to look on the driver side of the block. I think there are a lot more grounds on this car than 2, when I tried searching online some more last night I saw them all under the car too, around the exhaust and on the cross member, pretty much everywhere but the one I noticed.