What the hell is this cut wire in my engine?

I just noticed this when checking my oil. I'll admit I'm not the sharpest leaf in the drawer but I think I would have noticed this before today as I do regularly check my oil between changes.

I only have one picture prior to today that shows that part of the engine bay but it is not conclusive enough.

Here's what I am talking about:




Here's the only glimpse I have of it before:

 

Looks like the ground that should go to your negative battery connection

 

x2

 

^this.

 

that's a ground...

should be two neg. wires coming off the neg. terminal.

one goes to the fuse box... the other grounds to the fender wall.


^ X4 I guess...

in the first pic it looks like there might be two cables on the terminal ?
possibly someone changed/extended the ground ?

 

Ground for the battery.. I'm guessing it was rerouted somewhere else or you wouldn't be able to start the truck.

 

That was my first reaction. It is obviously a ground, probably for the battery... but how am I starting my truck.

I'm trying to think who would reroute my neg battery ground and why? I've had the same battery in my truck for over 10 years now.

 

You have two ground wires. All that smaller one does is electrically tie the chassis ground to the battery's negative terminal. Accessories you've connected to the chassis (bolt or screw perhaps) might not work however, ground can be carried from other devices to the chassis so you may never notice.

 

Well I just checked and the only thing connected to the negative battery terminal is the cable itself. It runs between the battery and the fuse box and down into a wire loom which eventually runs into a connector at the bottom of the engine.

I do not see anything else that looks like a ground of any sort.

I'm confused (more so than normal)

 

Well that might explain why the light in my topper isn't work.

What's the best way to tie that ground back onto the neg terminal?

 

Buy a new cable.

 

I just put a new battery in..
and had to change things a little.

so I cut the original off and extended that ground with a 4ga cable

I'd probably replace/reconnect that...
the more grounds the better... IMO

 

Obviously.

But how does it attach to the neg terminal?

 

The short cable was originally swedged onto the OEM battery cable. Just buy a cable that's long enough to reach the bolt side of the cable and bolt it back on.

 

Grassy ass

 

My ground right there is not connected either. I'm guessing it was re-routed as well

 

The same way the other cables attach.

 

Well I hooked a new 4ga cable up to it. The light in my topper still doesn't work (just checked all the connections, relay/fuse, etc)

 

I know I keep stating the obvious but is the bulb burnt out?

 

As you should....


No, the bulb is fine, I checked that.

There are four wires that run into my topper. Two (pos and neg) for the third brake light and two (pos and neg) that run into the switch assembly for the light aimed into the bed.

My third brake light on my topper works fine.

My thought is it could be a bad switch? I don't know. In the long run I will eventually replace the one incandescent bulb with an LED light bar. I just want to figure out why the bulb isn't getting any power.

My voltage detector doesn't register anything...but I think it only detects AC current (I use it around the house). Pretty sure automotive current is DC, right?