• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

An electrifying topic

Share this page

T

tdskip

Yoda
Country flag
Offline
One more electrical question if I may. So with the car running now that I fixed my self-induced and DPO wiring to the ignition I noticed (hard not to actually) that I got a small zap when I touched the body of the car when the ignition was on.

Does that suggest I don't have good earth contact(s) as necessary? There is an engine ground strap but it has seen better days.
 
Re: An electrifiying topic

absolutly i would suggest getting a new strap strip motor and chassis to bare metal at contact points install apply paint or somthing to prevent rust also check your battery to firewall ground and do the same there
 
Re: An electrifiying topic

also i remember you asked about braided brake hoses i replied to make sure they did not ground on any thing the problem you have now is why i said that elec shorts can get very hot hot enough to cause a fire and hot enough to boil brake fluid
 
tdskip said:
One more electrical question if I may. So with the car running now that I fixed my self-induced and DPO wiring to the ignition I noticed (hard not to actually) that I got a small zap when I touched the body of the car when the ignition was on.

Does that suggest I don't have good earth contact(s) as necessary? There is an engine ground strap but it has seen better days.
Click to expand...

If the engine was not running, then that zap would have just been static electricity, the same as if you scuffed across the carpet and touched the doorknob. My late model car zaps me all the time just getting out of the driver's seat and touching the door frame.
 
Re: An electrifiying topic

mrzippy said:
also i remember you asked about braided brake hoses i replied to make sure they did not ground on any thing the problem you have now is why i said that elec shorts can get very hot hot enough to cause a fire and hot enough to boil brake fluid
Click to expand...

The brake hoses would always be grounded. They have nuts holding them to the car body, and attach to the calipers, which are grounded. Since a direct short to the brake hose from the live side of the battery would be extremely unlikely, that's kind of a moot point. You would be just as likely to have a short to the fuel line, which is also grounded, and that would have much bigger issues than some boiling brake fluid. :smile:
 
Re: An electrifiying topic

Did this happen just once, or does it always happen when the car is running?

Sounds to me like it probably is static electricity--I have a hard time imagining anything else that could do this.
 
Back
Top