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MG TD TF 1500 - Getting a good ground

I am in the process of wiring my 53 mg td which was repainted in pieces prior to assembly. What is the best technique to assure that all body parts are grounded to each other. I kinda hate grinding the paint off at the bolt holes to make contact from body part to body part. Or I guess I could run a ground wire to each light but that would not look original. Any thoughts?

thanks, Bill
Bill Brown

I had a real problem with grounding the license plate light (i have a third brake light) after painting...ended up taking it all apart and cleaning off the paint where the pieces joined...pita
You might try those washers that have sharp points and use those?
When i got the car on the road, I did go over 'every' connection I could find and put a drop of 'Stabilant 22' using a hypodermic needle. This is a 'current enhancer' used by NATO and NASA....(a company here in Canada makes it)...never had an electrical problem yet?
gblawson(gordon)

Bill - The only sure way to insure that you have good, long lasting grounds is grind away the paint around one bolt hole and either use the product that Gordon suggests or one of the other anti-corrosive, conduction enhancing products on the bare area. For a good ground, it is mandatory to have a solid, metal to metal contact, whether it is the metal of the fender to metal of the body or using a ground buss. Either way, requires grinding off the paint where the connection is to be made. This does not mean that each bolt hole has to have the paint ground off or that the paint needs to be ground off on both sides of the piece, just where the two pieces of metal contact each other. See the article, Electrical Connection Preparation in the Other Tech Articles section of my web site at: http://homepages.donobi.net/sufuelpumps/ Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Thanks all. I was afraid that would be the answer but it is what it is and I will do a bit of grinding. I know you can go crazy with ground problems.

Bill
Bill Brown

Bill, I followed Dave's advice and have had no problems. My local parts store/machine shop loaned me a couple "bits" - they were like a drill bit, but have a protruding round snout (pilot?) with flat cutters. You just stuck the snout into the hole, and rotated it to remove the paint. It would leave a nice round bare metal area. Then I used the copper-coating stuff- don't remember the name. George
George Butz

Bill,
In the aircraft industry we use a rotating steel brush to clean the grounding point. Then tighten the bolt or nut typically with a clean washer. On top it was sealed with a special product named "Nycote"
http://www.nycote.com/
This covering protects all the parts against moisture and prevents corrosion on the structure parts. It works well on Aircrafts, why not on our MG’s? I haven’t use it on my car but I think it's worth to think about it.
Cheers,
Guenter.
Guenter

Remember, cleaning the paint 'out of' the bolthole and using a bare bolt pretty well grounds your connection. You don't have to overdue it....!
gblawson(gordon)

This thread was discussed on 21/09/2009

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