Lesson Learned - Ground Strap

[JMarsa]

Not PT but a good lesson I learned which I thought I'd pass along.

A few weekends ago I painted the battery area on my garden tractor (19 HP diesel). I taped everything off including the battery terminals and left the top of the negative cable's grounding bolt to the frame exposed so the paint would "preserve it". I left it bolted to the frame.

When it came time to fire it up for the first time, the gauges, warning lights energized but I just got some clicks from the starter. On the second try nothing came on so I charged the battery and made a 3rd attempt, nothing came on.

A new battery later, same as the first attempt, lights and gauges and just clicks. Got out the tester, 12v at the battery and starter...charge the battery. Read the server manual while charging.

Then I got to thinking about the ground strap and how it caused problems on another mower I had with an aluminum block. So I unbolted the cable and scraped where it contacted the frame with a flat blade screwdriver (this area was untouched, not painted and AFAIK, the way it left the factory) and reassembled not even cleaning the bolt or washers since they were shiny clean.

Started right up..Who new??

--JMarsa

[silver69camaro]

Art had some goofy problems with the Corvette not too long ago related to bad grounds.

Even though he did a great job using a grounding kit due to the glass body, long story short the clutch hydraulic line (braided stainless) ended up acting as a ground. One of the strands burnt through the teflon liner as it was trying to carry some current and sprung a leak. Good times!

[RudeJester.s10]

Learned this one a long time ago when I was still mudslingin in circles. Left the ground strap (braided one) off on the passenger side and for weeks...in a matter of laps I would foul every plug on that side...some old dood whom I now refer to as "the angel of dirt", comes over as Im cussing the car and says...ground that side and see what it does. Fixed.