ground straps

[smokin_944]

Gents, the German and I have revisited the grounds on my early car to upgrade them to 1 gauge and we have discovered a braided copper ground mounted to the firewall (almost in the middle) that seems to mount on the clutch bellhousing. Is there an easy way to access the mounting point on the bellhousing without removing the intake plenum and the vacuum lines or are we just dreaming?

[ernie9944]

Why do you want to change thar braided copper ground strap,it does look in good shape mine have been on the car for what now, some 27 yrs nothing wrong with it.

[John_AZ]

Anytime you work around the TDC bell housing hole----Tape it Up to avoid dropping a bolt in the clutch.

This grounding appears to be a homemade solution. The ground is in front of the intake air fan housing. It should be very effective in grounding the chassis to the block and battery.

The black rubber tall cover that is on the passenger side of the reference sensor connections. At the firewall by the AC hose. What does it cover?? Is that the vacuum canister remounted?

Normally you should be able to push away the hoses and wires to get to the bell housing negative ground post from the drivers side of the reference sensor connections. There is also a ground near this post for the engine electronics. Clean them both.

GL
John

[smokin_944]

Ernie, I have replaced most of the grounds with 1 gauge sheathed copper wire and this has had a positive effect on gauge fluctuation and the charging system. The wire looks puny and scrawny. And Ernie, I'm bitter cause your engine bay is pristine!
Thanks for the tip John, the tall black cover is the alarm horn that the PO installed before I bought the car. I'll post a pic from a different perspective to make it clearer. The PO taped either the ref sensor connector or the hall sensor connector and didn't use the bracket for both. This limits the access to the mounting point. Pic coming up soon...

[AKCJ]

Originally Posted by smokin_944

. . . And Ernie, I'm bitter cause your engine bay is pristine!
. . .

ditto

[smokin_944]

Here are pics from a different angle...

[smokin_944]

[smokin_944]

[John_AZ]

Originally Posted by smokin_944

Is there an easy way to access the mounting point on the bellhousing without removing the intake plenum and the vacuum lines or are we just dreaming?

The bottom picture is about as good as it gets. You do not take off the intake to get to the gound bolt. Push aside the wires and hoses. Get a 1 foot 3/8" extension and socket. TIP ===when the bolt falls out of the socket on top of the engine, I use my 2 foot Harbor Freight telescopic magnetic pencil pickup tool. EASY! I also find washers I have dropped.

GL
John

[HondaDustR]

Yeah, it's a PITA to get to, but it can be done. +1 on covering the TDC inspection port. You will be kicking yourself around the block multiple times when you see what you have to take apart to get something out of there.
Don't you hate how engine bays swallow stuff up like a black hole...especially when it's dark out? Stuff like a throttle body bolt that has never been seen again to this day even after a complete engine removal and stripdown. On the plus side, I found a bonus 10mm socket sitting behind the water pump on the used motor I bought to rebuild.

[smokin_944]

You guys are scaring me. It looks like a dog's breakfast in there. Here all I wanted to do was upgrade the ground wires to 1 gauge to get some of the wankiness out of the car gauges. The temp gauge and fuel gauge get restless and move around sometimes and it is annoying me. Now I have to figure out how to get to the TDC bellhousing hole to tape it up before I go any farther...

[HondaDustR]

If your guages are wacking out, check the 2 ground points under the dash behind the fuse panel. They're even harder to get to, but at least there's no horrible places stray hardware can fall into. There's a bolt for a couple ring terminals and another bolt with an octopus looking spade terminal block, which, by the way, is a great place to obtain extra grounds for stuff like a dedicated ground for the oil pressure guage and other important stuff like that, since there's plenty of extra spade connections and the stock wiring is generally underwired and ancient=fluctuating guages. There's another ground behind the glove box, but I believe it's primarily AC stuff.

The bellhousing hole is pretty easy. Just peer down where the crank sensors are with a flashlight and you'll see it. It's about a 1" square hole you can see the flywheel through.

[ernie9944]

I,m looking at your third pic & at a plug in witch I beleive is from your OS ,seeing bare wire there (the green one) if so you should fix it fasten it safely.What I did with mine, once I had the connection rigth is to wrap in a corrugated shield,and all extra wires running from the driver side to the passenger side should be running up against the fire wall & fasten with tie-wraps.Not trying to tell you what to do it's your engine bay, but just given you some idea. Also by sending pics of my engine bay I,m not trying to show off just trying to pass my experience over .Don't expect to do it in one day take your time & make it nice & LOL don't be shy on the tie-wraps .

[smokin_944]

HondaDustR I will look at this tomorrow, excellent idea! Ernie, as always an excellent tip and I thank you. I will do as you say. I've gotten to the point that I will slowly bring my engine bay to ressemble the artwork plainly evident on your 83. I thank you all!

[smokin_944]

Anyone know what the green wire is for? What is OS?

[John_AZ]

Originally Posted by smokin_944

Anyone know what the green wire is for? What is OS?

Could be the Oxygen Sensor.
Should be changed if your car runs rich at idle or over 60K miles.

There is a cheap Bosch interchange instead of the $$$$$ OEM
Never solder the wires if you change, Crimp!

GL
John

[smokin_944]

John, you wouldn't happen to know the number would you? I was told 11027 but I am unable to confirm...

[ernie9944]

Originally Posted by smokin_944

Anyone know what the green wire is for? What is OS?

Look at the first pic I send , to the rigth of the ground strap you'll see the Oxygene Sensor connection with the green wire,your car being an early one connection should be the same with similar wires colors

[smokin_944]

Thanks Ernie! I am now hunting down a new one as soon as I get the correct Bosch number...

[HondaDustR]

For the 1 wire, get the 11027 Bosch part number or equivalent, recommended by a Bosch engineer as the correct universal substitute.

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