Whoa! Re-grounding really worked!

[gustavohuber]

So I figured I'd give the "grounding mod" a try, just because crimping is fun.. and so I replaced my stock 8ga main ground/clamp with a fatty fat fat 2ga with chunky ends fattened.. i mean fastened to the ends, then I soldered in a couple 10ga wires in to a 6ga copper ring terminal, and crimped smaller ring terminals on their other end, directly grounding each strut tower (via the grounding holes) and the middle of the firewall (via its grounding hole) plus the engine block via one point where the belt guard bolts on, and another where the distributor bolts on. The last one seems vaguely like a bad idea, since it puts a direct ground really close to my spark wires, but I hoofed some extra insulation on the wire and end, and, well.. low and behold, not only does the car idle better, but the big hesitation/dead spot in 2nd is totally gone. I have clean, even power throughout each gear. I really, really expected to be $20 poorer.. but NEVER expected an actual, obvious benefit. Woohoo!

[Nomake Wan]

This is interesting... a dead spot in second... was it near 3k? It seemed to me like the TCU just didn't know what to do, but...

Maybe I'll look into this. My grounds look pretty shoddy anyway... they're 15 years old, after all.

[IronMonkeyL255]

I may have to look into this as well. I keep telling myself I am going to do it, but never get around to it.....

[NuwanD]

definately a worth while mod, did the same 2 years ago and the idle smoothed out very nicely, also seems to have fattened out the torque curve a tad bit....

[G-reg]

Make sure you have good “electrical bonding” on the chassis. I took a dremel and cleaned up the cable ends and the mounting points on the body as both were kinda corroded. I reinstalled everything and hit them with some paint to keep them sealed. And that alone made a noticeable difference, using the stock wiring.