The sneakiest ground point

[zKars]

So I happen to have the gas tank out of the 71 I'm working on (a whole nother post on its own....) and remembered to clean the ground point in the wiring harness that is only accessible when the tank is out. 

Perhaps some of you don't even know it's there. Thought I'd show it's location and how to service it.

The wiring harness that runs from the hatch through the floor to the fuel level sending unit and fuel pump is the one we are talking about. After it goes through the floor, the ground wires terminate at a 5mm ring terminal that attaches to a threaded hole on the side of a frame member on the right side.

The bolt is a 5mm hex head. Remove it, clean the face of the ring terminal with a wire brush until it shines. My suggestion is to use a new clean bolt and lock washer, stainless if possible, but you can clean and re-use the stock one. Paint it or smear seam sealer over it once you get it backtogether and tight. No more bad ground.

Now on to the "while you're at it...." department

Exhaust leaks.

You have a chance with the tank out to take car of some exhaust leak areas.

Notice the state of the rubber grommet where the harness passes through. Repair or replace as needed. Clearly I need to do some maintenance on mine.  

Run a bead of seam sealer along the seam where the horizontal hatch floor meets the vertical rear valence at the very back. There may be some there now, but on my 73, and on this 71, the factory bead does not run far enough to each side. Others have reported exhaust leaks through this seem in the past, maybe you remember the thread about the smoke machine. I think you can add sealer from the top too, but's real hard to get into the two side pockets from the top. Piece of pie (I prefer pie over cake) from the bottom.

 

[Captain Obvious]

Now that's the kind of info that makes this place wonderful. Thanks for sharing!

[Matthew Abate]

The key is remembering all this when its time to do it!


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[zKars]

So I finished up all the cleaning, caulking and coating application (bed liner) up behind the tank yesterday and went out this morning to put the tank back in.

Got it jacked up in place, back on the fill hose (thank you heat and vaseline for another helpful service!) and started thinking about putting the straps on, then WHAM it hit me..

Forgot to put the ground lug and new bolt back in place...... Take it back down, clean the coating off the lug that got sprayed, ran a tap into the threads to clean it out, and put in a new pretty bolt.. THEN put the tank back in.. Sheesh....

[ta240]

18 hours ago, zKars said:

 ......then WHAM it hit me..

Forgot to put the ground lug and new bolt back in place...... 

That is usually what happens to me right after I think "wow, that went well".  Then I look over and see the bump stop I forgot to put on the strut.

[Chickenman]

It usually happens to me at 3:00 AM in the morning. Hmmm... did I remember to center punch the mainshaft nut when we rebuilt the tranny???