The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk headligts and grounding wires

hey i have a 1961 half tong pickup, it has the quad headlights, and today im puttin the grill assemble back on the truck, now the plugs are easy enough, but where goes the ground wire go to, im assumin its a ground as it has a cord with a metal o.. any help would be appreciated

The ground lug can attach to any piece of sheet metal around the inner fender, radiator support, etc. While you're at it, run some fair-sized ground wires from the frame to the engine, and frame/body, etc. It's hard to have too many ground wires. Run the negative battery cable to the engine for good starter and ignition grounding, and then ground the frame and the body metal back to the engine or the battery with smaller wires.
Jerry

Mike - Took a look at my 61 last night, but it was late, and dark and I couldn't spot the ground wire connection. Mine has the original harness and if you're looking to ground it as original I'll be glad to look tonight before it gets dark. Is the ground wire on the end of the harness on the passenger side or driver's side?

There's usually a ground pigtail from each headlight socket-plug (or at leat one-per side on four-headlight systems); it usually attaches to the fender or fender apron or radiator core-support behind the headlight shell or near the bucket, often with a sheetmetal screw.

If the front sheetmetal is kind of crusty and your headlights are seem dim, it sometimes helps to run a #12 or #14 ground wire from the various fender aprons (or wherever the front lights ground to) back to the battery ground conection or to the engine block.

Vehicles that depend upon "chassis grounds" often find those grounds compromised after 30-50 + years of corrosion.

Freshly painted panels painted separately, then bolted together may also not make good chassis grounds.

Good luck !