daafisch

Alright so here's what happened. After a long day at work I left to go home. I had to get gas so I went to the cheapest gas station that I know of around work to get gas. I turn off the car, pump my gas, get back in and go to start the car. Nothing. When I mean nothing I mean no power to ANYTHING. I was like wtf, there is no possible way my battery lost 100% power. So I push my car into a parking space and start to investigate.

Since it was 830 at night and I still have a 25 minute drive back home I gave my dad a call just to see if he had any idea of what to check. While talking to him my car all of a sudden got power back. So in a span of 5 minutes i go from no power to 100% power....it was like there was a evil car creature in my engine bay that decided to flip a switch.

Anyway, I figured there much be a dirty ground terminal or something like that. When I finally get home I decide to check it out. Terminals are fine, so I decide to follow my ground and check to see if the bolt came loose or something. Chassis ground is fine, so I go in search of the main ground. I find it and to my surprise, the f*cker isn't connected to anything, on top of that its it appears to not have been connected for a while.

Now I connected it to one of the bell housing bolts(don't know where it was originally) and everything is all fine and dandy. Now what leaves me scratching my head is, I haven't done anything in that area of the engine since my dad and I changed my clutch 3 years ago or about 60,000 miles....

If this main ground hasn't been connected since then, HOW THE HELL WAS MY CAR STARTING?!?!?!!? and not only starting but still running all this time...There is no way that what 16g chassis ground was good enough.

Stocker

You mean the battery (-) was disconnected? That'd be freaky. Conductive battery case!

majik

what are you calling "the main ground" ?

You said the chassis ground was fine... so it was grounded to SOMETHING, right? I'm having a hard time following what was/wasn't connected.

i8acobra

He means the engine ground strap. It's possible it was making intermittent contact, or the electricity was finding another ground path. The only time the engine ground strap is really needed is when the starter is engaged. It does bleed off some leaking current from various components and it also grounds the spark plugs, but with the amount of electricity the ignition uses, the engine block itself is usually massive enough to act as the ground. Hooking it back up should get you back a few missing HP.

daafisch

Yeah it the engine ground. I was referring to it as the "main ground" because of the fact that the cable is larger then the chassis and that s the way my dad refers to it all the time.

But even so, if I did have a chassis ground shouldn't I of still had power for my lights and such, instead of having nothing for that short time?

Stocker

Depends on the chassis ground. Now is the time to make sure ALL of the ground contact points are clean and tight.

radu_rd2

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (i8acobra @ Dec 5 2008, 12:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>the engine block itself is usually massive enough to act as the ground.</div>

That's now how electricity works. If the engine block has no path to the voltage source ground, there can be no circuit. And the alternator would have no way of charging the battery.

Now, if the battery ground was ok, how come you lost ALL power? Lights, interior lights, stuff like that shouldn't be affected by a missing engine ground..

frozen

Since this appears to have been disconnected for a long time, it's safe to say that this is not the cause of your problem. You checked both battery posts, not just the ground, right?

daafisch

correct. Checked both battery post before I checked the engine and chassis grounds. Both of them looked fine.

Thing that sucks about this problem is yes it happened and it happened for a reason, but if that ground has been disconnected for that long and hasn't happened until now, who's to say it will ever happen again...

majik

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (radu_rd2 @ Dec 5 2008, 01:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>That's now how electricity works. If the engine block has no path to the voltage source ground, there can be no circuit. And the alternator would have no way of charging the battery.

Now, if the battery ground was ok, how come you lost ALL power? Lights, interior lights, stuff like that shouldn't be affected by a missing engine ground..</div>
Correct. The bolt on my engine was loose, and the ground was not secure, so my alternator would work intermittently, because the alternator is grounded to the engine as well. Without the engine grounding properly to the battery, the alternator wouldn't charge.

Thus, the alternator relies on the engine block for grounding, which relies on the connection to the battery for grounding, which relies on the chassis for grounding... correct?

If the bolt was loose, and fell out during your drive, that could have caused it to die (no ground for the alternator). You were relying on the battery's power alone, which wasn't enough to start the car.