The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Gas tank float ground 1950 3100

Where do I attach the ground wire to the gas gauge float at the gas tank? Thank again for any help.

To one of the flange mounting screws. Then to the frame. Clean shinny metal is necessary at each tie point.

Interestingly enough, the original grounding point of the sending unit wire was under the floor below the seat pedestal.There is bolt which holds a wire clamp under the floor. The wire goes between this clamp and the bottom of the cab. I guess that this made sense because the gas gauge is grounded to the cab at the dash. At least that's how my original braided wire on my '52 3100 was wired. But then I have been wrong somewhere near half the time on such matters. Your mileage may vary.
Carl
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Best that's ever been
When I wake up in the morning I pee excellence.
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Carl, your answer makes sense. I was stating what I do on TF and all have been either panels or suburbans. Was the wire attached to the sender flange screw? Not sure which end the poster was asking about or asking about both ends of ground wire. I don't know if all models of all eras had a wire. So I should have said "add a wire"......

My 60 has a dedicated wire/push-on spade on the sender.

Here's a couple of photos of the sender and the ground point that Carl was talking about on my '51 3100.

On the photo of the bottom of the cab, the red arrow is the ground point and wire clip. Blue arrow is where the wires go thru the floor. Green arrow is the hole for the tank outlet.

Thanks everyone for your help. Got to wonder why Chevy grounded it where they did. Lots of sheet metal closer to the sending unit.

That's what I was wondering. Electrical was not the forte of early automotive engineers/designers. As evidenced by lack of fuses, bad grounds, battery placement, 6V, Positive ground, cloth insulation, primitive or no connectors, dim lights...........
Some of that is just that technology/materials were not available. Some of was the lack of understanding of Electrical reliability importance; environmental/vibration/corrosion/ heat/cold/protection effects on electrical contacts, terminals, wire and components. WWII and Korea were major learning exercises.
The positive ground part is just to say no standardization, it has no effect on performance. GMC, VW, Model A, etc. had no issues.
They started hiring electrical engineers and things got "better"/standardized.

That's what most of us do, upgrade/renew the electrical as a major item on the Do-Do list.

Great photos from Kevin.

I think you mean the To-Do list. The Do-Do list is the one your wife keeps on you - she brings it out if you dare to criticize her.

When these trucks were built in the 50s, GM only expected them to last 50,000 miles and the electrical system was good enough for that. I think that the engineers, if they are still around, would be amazed that some of them are still on the road.

I think the reason behind that ground/wire clip location is that the wire clip was needed anyway to keep the harness from dragging on the ground (about halfway between the tank and firewall), and since the tank is sorta isolated from the cab by the fabric(?) pads electrically, they figured out that it didn't work without a dedicated ground, and cheaped out on putting another screw somewhere. It could have just as easily been grounded to the vertical stretchers on the back, or to one of the bolts thru the belt-line connection (although those would be stand-on-your-head to access). Probably another instance where the bean counters won over the engineers, although 5 or 6 feet of copper wire is probably more money than a single screw.