Old 06-16-2012, 07:35 AM
  #14  
roadkill2
Senior Member
RACING JUNKIE
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 628
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Way back when (Yeah, before the wheel was perfectly round) I was mentored in a little gas station/garage by an old WWII Air craft Mechanic. We're talking about the 6 Volt, cloth wrapped insulation stuff that required a Jillion Amps to do anything. My mentor always insisted that loose or dirty connections were the general bugaboo for most of the ills that befell customer's cars, and in about 80% of the cases, he was right. Back then, a good ground was just about anything that touched metal because of the Amp draw it would arc it's own connection.

Today, a good ground, through, usually, a ground wire at least as big in gauge as the feed wire is a must. Ignitions operate on millivolts, and draw lots of amps, so there's little chance of arcing a ground. And the days of a cheapie plug in connection is history. I use those really neat waterproof GM connectors on everything, including dome lights and crap like that . . They, and the water tight Bendix plugs are the only connectors I'd use on any thing . . On the ground side, I use a 1" braided ground strap between the engine and frame, and for all the body and firewall grounds, I have terminal blocks specifically for ground with 8 ga. wire going to the negative battery post . . On my street rod, the TBI system is grounded to a separate grounding block and goes (again) straight to the neg on the battery.

Damned electrical, no matter how simple you attempt to make it, usually causes more problems on a car than anything else. Drag Race cars are especially vulnerable because of the vibration and shock created by hard leaves. In-car videos we take shows everything in the car moving (and twisting) when you do a frame by frame of the start. The chassis and cage are about as rigid as you can make a 7.50 cert, and we're pretty thorough, but after watching a couple of videos, we began a little tighter maintenance program . . Electrical connections (specifically bolted or screw fastened) are subject to loosening as are the CO2 plumbing for the shifter and 'chute . . Just stuff you have to pay attention to so your weekend will be successful instead of becoming a headscratcher . .
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