using factory grounds

Most of the factory grounds I've found are bolted down using a hooked wing. Is it to okay to place amp grounds terminals above that tab and bolt down? Can that connector handle 50 plus amps?

The standard advice is to sand down the paint and put the ground ring terminals under the factory ground wing connector which raises the complication of how to prevent rust on the exposed metal.

Thanks in advance.

 

Dag-on this thread is already pulling up in a search. Here's a photo of the "wing connector."

 

If you sand down the paint to bare metal and place your aftermarket ground eye at the bottom and replace the factory ground wires above it, and then smother the whole thing in dielectric grease, you should have no problem.

 

The thing of it is, dielectric grease is actually an insulator. I use bearing grease for grounding applications to avoid corrosion.

 

Sorry, I should have been more specific

Smother the OUTSIDE of everything with it. Not the metal-on-metal parts

good catch

 

If I can put the ground on top why bother scrapping the metal under the factory connector? Somehow that factory ground is working, not sure what kind of amperage it's engineered for, I know the same connector is used on the frame ground above the rear driver and I'm fairly sure that grounds the entire trailer hook up (which may still not be very many amps)?

[diversion] I suppose if I were going to use the frame ground (had considered it for a duel battery in the bed but changed my mind) paint/primer would be better then grease?

Could anti-seize be used to as a conducting rust inhibitor?

I'm full of questions mostly trying to be lazy and avoid scrapping down to bare metal, that and I already have anti-seize on hand. When in doubt though do what works for everybody else so I'm leaning towards scrapping some paint. Probably go with dialectic grease because I could use the dialectic grease for the spark plugs too which is coming up.

Looking to stop searching the internet and actually get something done on this project this weekend. Usually about 1/2 way through the project these details don't seem as impotent as just getting it done .

 

Answered one of my own questions, looks like anti-seize could in theory be an option too
https://www.manufacturing.net/home/article/13216826/understanding-the-true-value-of-antiseize

 

I use NO-OX-ID to treat for corrosion on electrical connections, including connections that handle thousands of volts.

 

Okay if I understand it right the clipy part on the all the ground connectors just to keep the ground secure and has nothing to do with making contact with the frame which is why the amp terminal should be underneath it (to keep it secure), the bolt through the frame is what actually passes current. I'm not entirely sold on the idea of scraping paint as the wide ground connector should have enough contact but if that's how the all the pros do it no point in second guessing it, I'm going to remove as little paint as possible tho rather then a massive patch like I see in a lot of videos.

I'm going to go with covering it with dialectic grease just because that seems to be the standard for other automotive stuff like battery terminals and I can source it locally. The only downside to dialectic is if I go in there and add another ground cable some of the grease might find its way onto the ground bolt.

Would still be interested to hear from someone who used a factory style ground without scrapping any paint but as far as I can tell that's the standard answer I was looking for.

Thanks all.

 

I didn’t scrape paint on mine, works fine so far.

 

Okay then I'm going to give it a go and skip the grease for now, keep it simple right? Makes sense on the factory connector, different story if I was drilling my own ground.

 

Yeah when I’m not making a new ground I don’t worry about it. If I’m making a new ground and have to remove paint, I use a small round wire brush drill bit so it cleans off a nice evenly round spot no larger than what I need.

I also add a beefy ground between the battery and the factory bond to handle the extra load of adding amplifiers. If you are just adding one small amplifier it’s not a big deal but if you put a moderately powered sound system in you have to consider how small that factory ground wire is.

 

I second the addition to the factory ground. On my ‘17, it’s only an 8awg wire. If your amp calls for 8awg or larger, that wire is now pushing its limits. I added ring terminals to a small length of 4awg and added it right on top.

you can also look into the big 3 upgrade, depending on the size of your system.

 

Turns out my left over 8awg ground wire from my last build is too short, was going to trim some left over 4awg ofc for the amp to ground wire but low and behold there's a slight bit of corrosion on that OFC running the length of the wire (was under the hood for about 4 years and used electrical tape instead of heat shrink - but no corrosion on the positive wire which it notable) - probably serviceable but I'm going to go ahead and purchase some new 8 awg. ACDC wiring supply sells wire with marine terminals already attached even though the ground will stay in the cab.

My question is if anyone knows what size terminal works on the factory ground bolt? The options a 3/8 and 5/16, I'm assuming 5/16 but wanted to see if anyone knows before I place the order.

 

Check using the a frame ground, it's 5/16.

 

Done. Woo-hew. Took me all day. Used the ground under the passenger seat - measured has about .2 ohm resistance to the battery body ground point btw. The ground in the kick panel would have worked fine too but would have added a foot of wire and run right past the under seat ground anyway but for anyone looking to avoid unbolting the seat the kick panel is an option.

The manual calls for a 8awg ground, I would have liked to use a 6 or 4awg ground wire but there'd be no way to get that on the amp terminal.

Basic process was: disconnected the battery, unbolted the seat and tilted it back w/o disconnecting the SRS, put the terminals on the top of the factory ground, and torqued the seat bolts back down to 27 fl lbs. No problems with the SRS weight sensor which is nice, the dealer said to $200 to re-calibrate the passenger weight sensor if it had gone out of wack. No voltage drop at the amp (0.01v) so I'm rockin' in the free world again.

No problems passing a 2awg wire through the passenger side grommet after cutting out the nipple.

Thanks everyone!

 

Hi there. I'm trying to find a suitable factory ground as well, but I need my connection inside the cab for my house battery. I'm kind of having a hard time settling in on what is "suitable". I found this on the passenger side kick panel area, but I'm measuring about 0.5 ohms between that and the starter battery negative terminal. Any advice? I will be pushing about 25 amps through this connection. NOTE: The alligator clip is just from my multimeter.

 

that's fine, but also be sure to upgrade the chassis-to-battery ground under the hood as well(add a new wire over the top of the existing, never cut and replace existing ground wiring), as it wasn't designed with a ton of overhead for the additional load.

 

Yeah, been toying with the notion of doing that as well. Good idea; additional chassis-to-battery ground wire in parallel would drop the overall resistance. That's a lot easier than revamping the stock wires. Thanks!

 

the entire idea of it, and you'll see the same advice on many 'big 3' upgrade guides, is that you're increasing the ground path, but maintaining the factory setup--this means that your additional wire is really redundant, but guarantees that all the factory gear has exactly what it needs, to factory spec, without accidentally changing it's resistance or connection quality. the reality is that even with the best installer, it's far more likely that the added-on ground wire will fail before the factory wire. so worst case, your added gear might not work, but the vehicle can still run in factory configuration.