Broken Battery Ground Wire

[trailnaut]

While replacing a dead battery, I found that the battery ground was broken and had been tucked off to the side. Thanks, prior owner!

It was pretty corroded before I cleaned it up and I can't tell where it originally attached.

Is it safe to just attach it at the bolt of the negative cable?
How bad is it that this sucker isn't connected right now?

 

[RussToy]

If I'm not mistaken...that's suppose to attach to the negative battery cable! I'm not sure of its purpose, other than grounding the body to the battery.

 

[mikebontoft]

yes the body needs a good ground to the battery. Anything grounded in the cab is making its path back to the battery through the engine block which may be enough for now. Get yourself another terminal and and hook them back together.

 

[Kurtis]

yes the body needs a good ground to the battery. Anything grounded in the cab is making its path back to the battery through the engine block which may be enough for now. Get yourself another terminal and and hook them back together.

It wouldn't stop me from driving to the store to get a new terminal but I would do this sooner rather than later.

 

[mikebontoft]

exactly. Since the computer is grounded through the body (I believe ) you have the chassis to engine ground and I think a body to engine ground so it should be fine... but if one gets severed or more resistance builds up as the vehicle ages, it could leave you dead in the water.

 

[trailnaut]

Thanks to everyone for their help.

I did some more searching and found that this is one of "The Big 3" ground wires that can be upgraded with more robust wires.

Thanks to BigFishAllDay for pointing me to his excellent post on doing the big 3 upgrades.

The pictures in that post and clear descriptions helped me understand exactly what I need to do to replace my broken ground with one of the big 3.

I'll post a followup this weekend when I implement 1/3 of the big 3.