How many grounds can one have?

Norse

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Working on the Imp today and starting to look at the mess that is the wiring.
Look at picture #1 and you will see how it looks.
20190110_145857.jpg



For clarification; the yellow wire starts and ends within the yellow circles. It clearly was installed by a previous owner. The red circles shows one black factory wire that runs the same route as the yellow and one black factory wire just hanging out in midair. The blue circles are the main Negative lead from the battery to the block and another lead going back over to that long-ass bolt in the fender to the right of the battery.
20190110_145857 - Copy.jpg



And this doesn't include the factory braided cable that goes from the back of the block to the firewall that is still in place since the factory.

Have I mentioned I have a strong dislike for fixing other peoples Micky Mouse wiring jobs? o_O
 

Aspen500

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Been there MANY times. Worse is when the vehicle has been at another shop and the repair was done by a hack who considers them self a professional. I'm an auto tech btw and poor workmanship p*****s me off to no end. Anyways,,,,,,,,,,,,,

In my opinion, you can't have TOO many grounds. A lot of what gets blamed on the power side of the circuit or a component itself is really a poor ground.

Your's looks like one where you need to start from scratch. Eliminate all the "repairs" and then start on the repairs.

Oh yeah, on the valve cover,,,,,,,,,,,,,the S&M sticker. Anything you want to share?:p I am kidding of course.
 

Norse

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I used to be a motorcycle mechanic and ran my own shop for a hot second, so we are on the same page. :cool:

Funny thing about the valve covers; I went to that big Mopar auction in South Dakota last June and even though I had zero small block powered cars I just HAD to have those valve covers!! I had never seen the likes of them before! Won the auction which included a set Edelbrock billet small block covers for $175. They have never been on an engine until now.
 

slant6billy

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So, that is a relatively mild hack. I've seen worse and done worse. So Ground is a really important factor. The ignition, charging system, and other components need good ground. As well lights. The Voltage regulator on the fire wall needs a good ground on the mounting bolts. The EGR controllers too need their cas grounded at one of the mounting bolts. The base of the 4 wire or 5 wire ignition needs to be grounded. The Lean burn controller has a logic ground buried in the case. Without good ground you get a high resistance and generate heat.... thus failure
 

Norse

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I hear ya, Slant6.
One of my former lives was as a BMW motorcycle mechanic. Nothing like having to add ground wires to brand new motorcycles that were supposedly tested at the factory.
 

Aspen500

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Another failure caused by poor, or missing, grounds can be the heater core or radiator. That darn voltage will find a path to ground any place it can. On newer vehicles I've found failed electronic modules that failed because of a bad ground. The voltage back feeds through the module to find ground and electronics don't like that one little bit.

Off topic a little but, just because the ground circuit checks OK with an ohm meter, doesn't mean it's a good ground. It needs to be checked under load, with everything plugged in and turned on. Same goes for the power side of the circuit. It may have 12 volts with no load, but 0 volts with the load applied. One strand will supply voltage to a volt meter (or test good with an ohm meter) it will not support a load.
 
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Norse

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I also wonder if this is left over from one of the previous owners trying to get the factory FI system to work. One write up I read was on how that system was prone to outside RF interference and I can see some back-yard hack adding more grounding to try and alleviate the issue.
 

slant6billy

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I actually saw an Imperial at Carlisle 5 years ago with working factory fuel injection. The owner had added a bunch of ground wires. Load resistance is affected by heat and cold. You will chase your tail as problems appear only to disappear with temperature
 

Norse

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With where I live and the weather we get I can see that issue.
My plan is looking more and more like I will gut everything and build a modern digital dash (Dakota Digital or maybe just an Ipad mount).
 

Darth-Car

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I saw one that was a worn daily driver 20 years ago, and it still had the fuel injection system intact, and working as built, and wired by the factory. As bad as the car looked I was amazed the fuel injection still was there, and functional.
 

Aspen500

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Amazing how technology has come along since the EFI Imperial. Nowdays, in most cases, the car goes to the scrapyard with 250,000 miles, all rusted to bleep yet, the original fuel injection system, with all it's original injectors, wiring, sensors, etc, (with the possible exception of the fuel pump) is still working like new.
 

BudW

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I've heard the Imperial FI did have a problem with Electromagnetic interference (high voltage power lines and transformers) – which seems plausible (not sure if true or not).

I know that many of todays computerized autos use shielded wiring for some/most of the wiring for computer. If I had an imperial, I would think shielding the important wiring might be easier than changing the fuel system over to something else (. . . maybe). That said, I’ve performed maintaince on these cars and other repairs (bulbs, wipers, power antennas, window switches, and so forth) but somehow never got the chance to work on the fuel system. There was one expert who worked on those, and only him. If he was on vacation, then the Imperials stacked up until he got back.

shielded wire.jpg

Shielded wire (it has a foil wrap (which is grounded) and generally a separate bare ground wire in many cases).,

BudW
 

XfbodyX

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I just read this from the link below.

Stuart D. Somers wrote, “The throttle body fuel injection gave a lot of trouble. Chrysler soon discovered that someone who could afford a $20,000 car could also afford an attorney! Instead of repairing the fuel injection, Chrysler replaced them with a carburetor. The kit included a new gas tank, complete exhaust system, and a new digital dashboard, and, of course, the intake manifold and carburetor.”

Imperial cars by Chrysler, 1981 to 1983

Which might tell me why I have this package of parts. I got these with lot of mopar parts and its also got a new throttle cable. Ive a bunch more from this envelope but you get the idea.

I wonder what carb and intake they replaced things with?

I do wonder what older wireharness might plug into your bulkhead?

DSC00075.JPG


DSC00076.JPG


DSC00077.JPG
 

Rustyroger

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Oh yeah, on the valve cover,,,,,,,,,,,,,the S&M sticker. Anything you want to share? I am kidding of course.

Going deep into the darker side of S&M, I believe there are a few who get their weird kicks from fixing hack wiring jobs......:eek:.
Apologies to Sox & Martin.o_O

Roger.
 

BudW

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The Imperial FI change-over – reverted to a normal 318 2-bbl.

This rod (red arrow) confirmed it is for a “normal” 318 2-bbl, for the 4-bbl rod and FI "top" rod are bent differently.
DSC00075a.jpg

The other two rods (white and blue arrows) are the other two kickdown rods (downward and transmission) – which I didn’t think was different (but not compared those two rods to a 318 2-bbl, before).


This picture (below) is all of all of the parts needed to change an Imperial FI over to 2-bbl).
Imperial FI changeover kit.jpg

BudW
 

Norse

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From what I understand one of the previous owners who swapped the 650 Edelbrock for the 750 Double Pumper paid the extra and got the Lokar throttle and kick-down cable kits (far left of pic).
20181219_123001.jpg


Though somewhat expensive they do work great and I don't have to deal with mix-n-matching factory parts. Though I do need to find a straight brace for the passenger side. :p
20181219_122952.jpg
 
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