Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

I need an alternative option of grounding my negative battery cable. You know where the factory negative battery cable is grounded? Well, I messed it big time. The screw broke in half, so there's part of the screw in the hole that holds it. Thus, I can't use that hole to ground my neg. cable anymore. Where else in the engine bay can I ground the neg. cable? And I have to reuse the brass plate that came with it right? This is why I don't do mods myself, I'll mess up. If there's no other way, I might have to bring it to the dealer and have them redo the whole connection. Thanks!

vmok

You can ground it to any clean part of the body. By clean, I mean no paint. You'll want to use a good sized ground cable and you can either drill another hole or use another existing hole.

-V

Daniel B. Martin

Use any of the large bolts which clamps the transmission and engine together. One of them is near the damaged connection.

guido_sst

Or you could just get a screw extractor, coat the sucker in WD-40, and replace it, but that's just me.

sinewave

There are two grounds on the negative cable, one on the engine and one on the chassis. Which one did you screw up? Since the engine is isolated from the chassis, you need a good ground on both.

Daniel B. Martin

Your approach is the best repair. The best repair is not always the easiest repair. Life presents us with a series of trade-off decisions.

Daniel B. Martin

I respectfully disagree. He lost his engine ground and you are suggesting he replace it with a body ground. That's not an adequate replacement. A healthy electrical system needs both grounds.

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

I'll try Daniel's suggestion and see how it goes. I'll keep you guys inform if any problem comes up. Thanks Daniel.

guido_sst

Quite true, but I like everything on my car to work, so I'd much rather go through the hastle just to make everything work the way it's supposed to.

vmok

My bad. I was wondering where the ground bolt was disconnected as well, but didn't see it anywhere in the original post, and he noted '...where else in the engine bay can it be grounded' instead of '...where else on the engine can it be grounded.' My apologies for mis-reading the original post.

-V

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

His way is the best way. That was my first thought when I had the problem. However, as you know, it's pretty cramp down there. I don't see how I'm going to extract the screws out, unless maybe if I take the whole engine out.

sinewave

Broken bolt extraction is a pretty tricky thing. You have to get the pilot hole centered and parallel in all directions to the bolt. Then you have to be very careful not to break the extractor. If you break it off in the bolt, you are screwed! The extractor is usually so hard, you can't drill it.

I'm pretty lousy at it so I usually leave it to a professional.

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

An update:

Well, I grounded my negative battery cable in a new location. I used one of the screws by the automatic tranmission dipstick. It doesn't look pretty, but it works. I like to thank you guys for the help.

guido_sst

I've had to do it so many times in the last several years that I have a full tap, die, and extractor set that numbers something like 300 pieces!

It's not really all that tough to do, just have to work slowly and be extremely careful.