What Would Happen If ???
 

On my 71 Chevy equiped with a 350/350 combo.
There are two what appear to be ground wires hanging from either side of the cowl area under the hood and just behind the heads that are not attached to anything. I assume they should be attached to the motor but I'm not sure.

What's the story, and what would happen if they are left dangling??

The grounding straps attach to the valve cover bolts/studs. The straps help ground out the motor to the cab.

What will happen if they are left unattached ?

What would happen? Static electricity will build up until finally it's enough to cause a spark, igniting the fuel vapors under your hood.

In a flash, the flames will reach your fuel tank, reducing your truck to a fireball! The explosion will cause the person driving next to you to flinch, sending his truck loaded with high explosives off of the overpass and into the adjoining natural gas refinery. The refinery will erupt into a mushroom cloud that will make Hiroshima look like a kid playing with cherry bombs. When the death toll is finally in, 500,000 people have been killed. This tragedy is only made worse when it's revealed that each and every one of them were children, orphans, or both.

That's probably just a worst case analysis, though. More likely, though, is you won't be getting the greatest ground to your cab and you'll notice quirkly electrical problems.

Brian

Great answer...sounds like I can end the world if I want to....but what type of electrical problems ?:)

lewi, why wait for a problem?. Takes 5 minutes to avoid future probs!. Do it right now

OK I'll come clean. I have had an occasional draw on the battery when the truck sits, I end up with a discharged battery or having to peplace the battery and have been told that the lack of a proper ground could cause this. I not sure that sounds reasonable to me but what do I know. This only happens occasionally and this weekend was the first time in about 6 months. The charging system has been checked a couple of times and all is fine.

Lewi,

I was missing my ground straps as well. I installed a computer controlled fuel injection system, and I found that for some strange reason, it ran much better in the rain!

Turns out that there was enough difference in the ground voltages that the computer wasn't getting a good throttle position reading.

Anything which is grounded in the cab like turn signals, instruments, and your radio can do squirrely things. I had my marker lamps coming on when my turn signals were on (and not with the headlights). I had one brake light working but not the other, etc, etc.

c10s point is a valid one. There are electrical things in your cab that need a good ground. It's a matter of a few minutes to reconnect your grounding straps.

Just to be doubly sure (because of my fuel computer) I ran a second ground wire from the grounding post at the radiator support to a second grounding point on the cab. Computer runs like a champ now.

Brian

I believe weather also had something to do with this as it rained for the first time in 6 months. I reconnected them yesterday but am trying to figure out if someone knows if this could be my problem or if another Gremlin is Lurking.

Lewi,

If it happens when it rains, that would indicate to me that you've got a bare hot wire someplace that gets water in it when it rains.

At some point when you believe the drain to be happening, a good way to narrow it down would be to pull the fuses from the fuse box one at a time and put an ammeter across them. If there's current flowing through a circuit, have probably found it.

The quickest way to tell if you have a drain is to get a test light and put it inline on your hot at the battery. If it glows, you have a drain. Remember to remove this before you try starting the truck <g>

Brian