ground strap question

[BarryK]

Hi all

I noticed on of the ground straps on my car is broken. It runs from a bold on the intake manifold to the throttlebody lever. Why in the world would you need to ground the throttlebody lever?? Doesn't that lever just run through the firewall to the throttle pedal which is mounted to the floor which is fiberglass? I can't figure what effect grounding that to the engine block can accomplish.

Barry

 

[warren s]

There are multiple grounding points on Corvettes as the body cant provide a common ground.

Its possible that a bolt was removed and a strap had its position changed by mistake., as long as the block has a good ground to the rest of the electrial system both in and out of the engine compartment. There still is metal bracing in the firewall and under the dash.

Going from the manifold to the throttle could have been a redundant connection.

 

[BarryK]

There are multiple grounding points on Corvettes as the body cant provide a common ground.

Its possible that a bolt was removed and a strap had its position changed by mistake., as long as the block has a good ground to the rest of the electrial system both in and out of the engine compartment. There still is metal bracing in the firewall and under the dash.

Going from the manifold to the throttle could have been a redundant connection.

Hi Warren

anything is possible after 40 years and I suppose it could have been moved by accident but the strap is very short and I can't see where else it would have connected to if it's not connected properly.
You could be right about it just being a redundant ground, but I just can't figure what good it's doing at all in that particular location. Of couse since the strap broke it doing NO good at all right now but even with an intact strap I can't see how it's grounding anything electrically.
I asked a few members of my Vette Club who also have midyears about it on Sat at a show but they couldn't help me as they all happened to have '66 and '67 BB cars so we couldn't compare motors.
Oh well, maybe nothing to be concerned about.

Barry

 

[67HEAVEN]

There's a ground strap on my SHP bigblock '67's throttle because when you really get honking on it, you need to keep grounded or you'll just fly away.

 

[BarryK]

There's a ground strap on my SHP bigblock '67's throttle because when you really get honking on it, you need to keep grounded or you'll just fly away.

Heaven

with the motor and power you have in your car you will need a ground ANCHOR or you will be flying with 747's even without wings!

 

[mike weyman]

i realise that you aparently don't need it, but i'd make sure you have a good ground to the engine. if there is no dedicated ground for the engine , put one there. improper ground can cause a lot of problems,the biggest one being an electrical fire. mike

 

[BarryK]

i realise that you aparently don't need it, but i'd make sure you have a good ground to the engine. if there is no dedicated ground for the engine , put one there. improper ground can cause a lot of problems,the biggest one being an electrical fire. mike

Hi Mike

I do know the engine needs a good ground and as we looked things over on Sat there are two other grounds from the block to the frame.
Thats what makes this particular ground connection confusing, it doesn't seem to exist for anything useful and being connected to the throttlebody lever doesn't seem to actually ground anything.

 

[ctjackster]

just buy a ground strap kit from Corvette Central or other vendor, not very much $$ and you will have one less issue to worry about when diagnosing an electrical problem, which are OFTEN "bad-ground" driven. You get the straps for the the throttle, antenna, engine mount, one body mount area . . . (since I have side pipes I have no idea about any exhaust grounds)

 

[BarryK]

just buy a ground strap kit from Corvette Central or other vendor, not very much $$ and you will have one less issue to worry about when diagnosing an electrical problem, which are OFTEN "bad-ground" driven. You get the straps for the the throttle, antenna, engine mount, one body mount area . . . (since I have side pipes I have no idea about any exhaust grounds)

Hi
I know how much trouble bad grounds can cause, especially back from my car audio days. The other ground straps look good and I suspect they were all replaced when the car was restored just before I purchased it but as you say, it might not be a bad idea to get a kit and just replace all of them to be on the safe side.
I'm still just curious about this one ground connection though - just doesn't make sense to me
Oh well, just I'll just replace it and just not know what it really accomplishes in that location.
I have the sidepipes on my car also.

 

[JohnZ]

It's grounded with a strap to the intake because it's adjacent to the plug wires and isn't grounded any other way; the fiberglass floor doesn't ground the lever pivot, and the throttle rod doesn't ground it to the engine due to the rubber bushings at both ends of the rod. It's a radio static thing.

 

[BarryK]

It's grounded with a strap to the intake because it's adjacent to the plug wires and isn't grounded any other way; the fiberglass floor doesn't ground the lever pivot, and the throttle rod doesn't ground it to the engine due to the rubber bushings at both ends of the rod. It's a radio static thing.

John

I knew YOU would have the answer!


If i'm understandingyou correctly, the throttle lever is grounded because it's so close to the spark plug wires. Even though the radio isn't directly connected right there, the static could '"transmit" to the radio because of the close proximity if the ground strap wasn't there.
Ok, I can see that although when I used to do car audio when it came to all audio componets I use to make sure whenever possible to ground everything at the same place to avoid ground loops. If you got a ground loop problem in the system it could be a real pain to fix so we learned to just ground all componets in a single spot and rarely had a problem. I guess in these older cars and as standard manufacturing to keep all wire costs down they will just ground everything to the nearest point to keep the wires short. These old cars must really play havis with the radios with the extra grounding needed in addition to the shielding on the distributors and sparksplugs


Barry

 

[67HEAVEN]

Barry,


Chapter 31 may be of some assistance to you regarding the radio.

 

[BarryK]

Barry,


Chapter 31 may be of some assistance to you regarding the radio.

Heaven

that's funny! I had seen that while going thru your site before and I understand completely. At anything above 20mph with my sidepipes the radio is useless on mine also!
I didn't know that the ground strap I was questioning really had anything to do with the radio until JohnZ mentioned it simply because it obviously doesn't go directly to the radio or the antenna.

Barry

 

[JohnZ]

There's another LONG solid copper ground strap (about 18" long) you probably haven't noticed yet, from the housing on your power antenna to the outboard side of the frame just forward of the #4 body mount, behind the rear tire. That one is the ground for the antenna motor, and also grounds the big aluminum ground-plane panel on the bottom side of the rear body panel surrounding the antenna base. Fiberglass cars have dedicated grounds all over the place.