Late interior groud point locations

Techno Duck · Techno Duck's Garage

I am in the process of trouble shooting a wacky voltmeter gauge. Its been reading about 12v under most conditions. I have cleaned every external ground in the engine bay and have verified the alternator and battery are up to par with a digital voltmeter. Battery cables replaced with IceShark's (RIP) stuff about 5 months ago and that includes the supplemental ground. I stuck my head under the dash and hit 4 of the ground points (technically its two ground points with two lugs each) and the ground in the rear hatch. I have a feeling i may be missing more. Are there any on the DME side (passenger) and any behind the instrument cluster i missed? This is for a late model car.

I am going to pull the instrument cluster tomorrow to clean those black 'football' looking connectors as others have referred to them tomorrow. Im not looking forward to it though... removing the gauge cluster on airbag cars is a PITA and i also need to take out my gauge panel in the center vents.... DOH!

I think ill create a picture guide for all the ground points tomorrow, seems this type of question is brought up often. I know about the diagram but i feel like not all of them are listed..

Case in point, there are two locations (as i mentioned above) under the dash and the diagram only lists it as one. So im wondering what other ones i may have missed that are incorporated in that one point on the diagram.

bearone2 · 07-30-2008, 09:13 PM

i've had several clusters apart and never seen any corrosion or funky stuff under/around the footballs.

phoenix_iii · 07-31-2008, 04:32 AM

Pictures of all of the ground points would help.

I would do '2' pictures of each. One kind of up close, and another 'zoomed out'. If you did callouts on the pictures that would be good, but doing the 'close' and 'afar' pictures would be great!

I am going to have to check my footballs too....

You got that crappy little wire between the frame and the engine, right?

Techno Duck · Techno Duck's Garage

Well after attempting to remove the gauge cluster, i couldnt pull it out more than halfway. I honestly do not know how the hell i got that thing out in the first place to install the LED lights. Anyhow, i cleaned what i could reach and i must have either jiggled something in the right way or cleaned something because i finally get normal reading from the voltmeter. I estimate its still about 1/4 of a volt off but good enough for me. Those black football looking connectors on the back looked fine but i cleaned them anyhow.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the ground points. I know im missing the one on the bellhousing, but there is so much crap covering that up on my car its impossible to get a clear picture. Mind you all of these locations are for a late 944. I know they are a little different on the early cars, specifically the under dash grounds.

1) Right front frame rail, right under the headlight motor, outboard side.

2) Left side of engine bay, just behind the strut tower.

3) Rear hatch, inboard of the left tail light.

4) Left frame rail..self explanatory.

5) Battery tray, on the fire wall

6) Under the dash, far left corner. There are two ground points, two lugs on each point.

7) Right side of engine bay, just behind the strut tower.

bearone2 · 07-31-2008, 06:40 PM

great pics, thanks.

i get the cluster out by rotating in, then it slides out nicely.

i lived in levittown on horn lane years ago.

rluciano · 05-27-2010, 09:07 AM

Are the grounds in pictures 2 and 7 turbo specific? I found all of the others on my wife's 1986 944. But these two which should be obvious are absent. I still have strange behavior from the fuel level gauge and the mpg gauge. Fuel level doesn't go to full and if you take your foot off the throttle and coast, the mpg gauge bounces between the extremes. Also it occasionally flicks around at random at other times, but those aren't repeatable on demand.

dcarlson · dcarlson's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by rluciano

Are the grounds in pictures 2 and 7 turbo specific? I found all of the others on my wife's 1986 944. But these two which should be obvious are absent. I still have strange behavior from the fuel level gauge and the mpg gauge. Fuel level doesn't go to full and if you take your foot off the throttle and coast, the mpg gauge bounces between the extremes. Also it occasionally flicks around at random at other times, but those aren't repeatable on demand.

I think they must have been - 2 and 7 don't exist in my '86NA either. there was one on the drivers side shock tower . this is a great thread for future reference. Found the ones under the dash loose - we'll if my mpg gauge behaves better. forget the one under the headlight motor on passenger side - that ain't happening with these meathooks!