Grounds on 4L80E truck. relocating one under dipstick?

[GM Guy]

Hey all,

Just like the title says, can a guy relocate the ground under the dipstick to be with the other two on the intake? I really don't see why not, do you?

Off to blow around the tube and wash it and hose it down with brake cleaner in preparation to pull the dipstick... tempted to just cut the terminal off and crimp on another, but the OEM terminals are pretty nice so I think I will fight the urge...

Also, does anyone have any tricks to break loose the nut from the stud on the intake bolt? mine was stuck tight and I ended up ruining one terminal getting it apart. I guess I need to grind down a 15 mm or buy a 15mm tappet wrench to get under there.

Thanks!

 

[NVW]

I relocated mine to the intake. I also bought a cheap 15mm wrench and ground it thinner, the box end also has a bend in it for the IP bolts.

 

[ak diesel driver]

heath recommends using one of the dry holes on the intake.

 

[GM Guy]

dang, that was fast! didn't even get out of the house!

I will definitely be relocating it, thanks guys!

 

[NVW]

We aim to please

 

[GM Guy]

Well, there was not enough slack to keep it retained in the heatshield, so I went ahead and pulled it out of the heatshield and ran it straght up, outboard of the exhaust manifold, inboard of the downpipe, and around the backside of the valvecover on the contoured corner so it wont sit and rub on an injector line or a glow plug wire. hopefully it will stay....
If someone doesnt think it will, and has a better solution, I am all ears. Do you think it will melt sitting on the exhaust? Surely not, but I may be wrong.

I am thinking in the future it may not be the worst idea to run one off the frame and make it a long one, loop it all around and away from exhaust, then come up the firewall, along the harness, then dip down and grab an intake stud.

That dipstick sucks. glad I have very few rigs with it....

Time to find the dremel.....

Also doing the battery bolt mod at the same time, not horribly corroded, but not all that clean either.

 

[schiker]

Which one are you moving? Not the frame to engine or body to engine. IMO you can add extra grounds but should keep factory grounds in near place or add to them locally. My understanding is the body, frame, and engine should be considered a great big bussbar that "sinks" to the battery. Really electrons flow out of the negative and flow to positive but never mind if the path is ok direction shouldn't really matter.

You have to be careful that current doesn't take a path shortcut through coolant or the crankshaft when the engine is not grounded well enough to the bussbar and back to the battery in the lowest resistance loop from ground to positive through the load. Especially through large current loads like the starter, glowplugs, or interior cab fan.

The cab doesn't run grounds back to the dipstick (firewall) ground but again the body should be considered a big bussbar. I don't really know but thought this was a good idea. Add a ground from passenger side to the rear of engine ground and driver side add a ground to body. Then I have thought should I also connect both battery negatives to each other also?????

 

[Will L.]

I run welding cable as my battery cable. Battery to body,frame,and engine. The factory does it as cheap as possible, just enough to get it out of warranty, and GM eats more electrical warranty work than any truck mfr.

Heath, as mentioned by AK driver, is on the money. Going to a wet hole is stupid. It creates the most problems. It is fast on the assembly line, that's why it's done.

 

[jrsavoie]

I also agree on the dry hole issue.

I run extra grounds as I've posted before. Frame, intake stud, battery box bolt, dash mount bolt from heater blower ground

 

[JayTheCPA]

X2 on what schiker says.

Keep the return path as close to the associating sending unit as possible to keep the electricity from getting creative and taking odd paths back to the battery.

 

[ditchpig]

The dipstick tube is mounted in a rubber grommet into the tranny, although its retainer is connected to the rear intake stud that is not a ground for the tranny.

I added 2awg fine strand wires for flexibility with crimped & soldered lugs (or crimp with conductive grease) for batteries to frame (each side), batteries to engine (each side), engine from battery connection to alternator (should have a treaded hole on back or use case bolt), engine from battery connection to fire wall (cab), engine from battery connection through fire wall to tube under dash, frame from battery connection to starter mount bolt, frame to tranny & frame to box. Yes that's 10 in total.

All ground connections clean to bare metal & I use a conductive grease Noalox (or Loctite Graphite anti-seize) & then sprayed with thick undercoating oil after tightening.

http://www.loctite.com.au/3320_AUE_H...=8803871981569

http://www.idealindustries.ca/produc...ies/noalox.php

Hopefully this helps anyone having grounding issues.

 

[Will L.]

Ditchpig, your description sounds perfect. Have any pics to show locations for people?

 

[WarWagon]

If you move the grounds you may find a slight resistance change and "noise". In doing big 3 kits I found on some rides that getting too close to the alternator would induce the AC alternator whine into other things and be audible in the cab. Onstar being a big offender. Keep the ground in the same area is best. Recall this ground is for the engine and transmission computer so I suspect the location is helping the computer accurately read transmission sensor/etc ground voltages.

Anything on the exhaust will melt as diesels have higher temps than gas engines. Anything close to my exhaust will melt, paint under the cab discolors...

 

[ditchpig]

Sorry no pictures. The grounds are where it is easy to get to & check. eg. from batteries straight down to frame rail, drill & tap.

For induced noise I've used ferrite cores for power cables, RF or sensitive signals will or should be shielded.