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ground wire question on my new radiator!


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I have an 83 gl wagon, and i just put a new radiator in from radiators.com, and it seems to work just fine. My question is, there is a black ground wire that goes from the top of the chassis to a screw on top of the old radiator[it is located on the passenger side just above the main fan]. My question is, the new radiator does not seem to have a hole cut out for this screw to go into. My old rad had a metal panel on top, which the radiator mounted to,and also a hole for this screw. Is this important to have grounded, and if it is, can i just ground it to any type of screw, there seems to be one on the chassis near it, but not on on the rad. I hope i am making sense, all my fans seems to be working correctly, i just have no idea what this ground is for, or if it is important for my car to function properly. Thanx All!!

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The ground is for the temp sensors that you probably swapped from the old rad to the new. If you look the sensor only has one wire going to it. When the Rad gets to the right temp that sensor becomes a short and completes the ground path for the electric fan. If that ground wire isn't there from the rad to the chassis the fan may not turn on. I had problems with my brat because that wire wasn't there when I bought it.

 

Keith

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  • 2 years later...

I would find a strip of metal and use a screw if possible, ground is for the temp sensor, the fan should have it's own (wish I had a brat:) but my gl has it's own. Fan won't work until the temp sensor tells it to (via relay). Overheating is not something to mess with, especially for a little ol wire.

 

In my experience 95% of all electrical problems are because of ground wires loosing contact. Understand that a gasket breaks a ground, so ground the head if it isn't. And the carb if wires go to it.

 

You can NEVER have too many grounds.

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the important thing is to ensure a good ground connection between the radiator and the car's electrical system. you could ground the radiator to the chassis, you could ground the radiator to the battery negative terminal.. or both. the stock wire is there to connect the radiator to chassis ground, so if you just use one of the fan or shroud mounting bolts for the radiator end of it, you are doing exactly what it did on the old radiator. try and find some bare metal on the radiator though, even if you have to find a file or some sort of sandpaper and make one.. paint is an insulator and while the bolt is going thru threads, the better the ground is, the better...

 

 

EDIT

 

OH GOD see i went and did it!! i didnt even notice it was an old thread on this one, but that gl killer character brought it up. see what i meant in the other 3 yr old thread? its an easy brainfart, more common to newer users....

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