bullet connectors and bad earths

[RichC]

it's amazing how quickly you forget that so many electrical faults can be diagnosed as a bad earth problem , especially when the problem is intermittent.
and not all earths are obvious .....
Having replaced the ignition switch & then a little later the solenoid to fix dodgy starting to find the problem hadn't completely gone away, younger son then took over and spent couple hours only to find solenoid earth is on LHS bobbin by steering rack . all fixed!
it seems the earth also serves the control box , so i wonder if that's why the charging system was failing as well?
the ammeter readings are now a lot healthier!

[chrisban]

Always a good idea to remove the main earth point from the battery were it connects to the chassis in the boot floor. Remove the earth nut and clean the contact surfaces, then from underneath remove the same bolt. It fixes the chassis to the body, clean surfaces and replace. Solves a multitude of problems. Slow windows, dodgy blinkers etc.

[RichC]

ages ago i ran a thick cable from this point and along beneath the central console fed it into a bullet connector under the dash feeding the family of black wires , not wishing to rely on chassis as conduit

[TroonSprint]

I've run the earthing cable from the battery up to the chassis bolt on the suspension turret. Here the bolt is tapped into the metal of the chassis giving a much better connection. Using the chassis is fine as long as the connections are in good order. After all, steel cars use the bodywork - what's the difference?

Mike

[RichC]

'if the connections are in good order' is true enough ......