DeTomaso Mailing List: May 1997, Message #119
     



From: MikeLDrew@aol.com

Subject: Re: ground under dash

Date: Sun, 4 May 1997 23:42:16 -0400 (EDT)



Capt Mike Drew

150 Westgate Dr.

San Francisco, CA  94127



Home/FAX:   (415) 334-7860



E-mail:  MikeLDrew@aol.com





Hello Paul and all,



Paul wrote:



I also have had a problem with my oil pressure guage fluctuating

at times. i have checked the connections on the guage and sender.

all are tight. i want to check the ground connection under the dash,

but have been unable to find it! I have laid on my back with a light

and mirror, but can't seem to find it. Can someone point me in the

right direction?

-------------------------------



>>>It's a beautiful sunny afternoon, and I'm in Waikiki, in the Outrigger

Reef hotel, right on the beach.  There's scads of Baywatch babes out there, a

cool reggae band playing right on the beach, and I'm sitting in my hotel room

answering questions about Panteras.



If there was ANY doubt in any of your minds that I'm a terminal Pantera geek,

this should erase them for all time!



I was researching this same issue on my car several weeks ago.  I remembered

from many years ago that the ground is a small, threaded stud that is welded

to the underside of something, just between the steering column and the

center instrument panel, pointing down at the floor.  Even though my dash and

instrument panel are completely removed from my car right now, it still took

me about five minutes of searching before I found it.



It's about an inch long, maybe less, and as I recall it uses an M10 nut (i.e

small)  If you don't find it right away, maybe you could remove your center

instrument console and follow the ground wire that way.  Early cars it's easy

to take off (finger-knurled bolts) while later cars use cheesy-looking

Phillips screws.



On my car, the last six inches or so of my ground wire was totally wasted,

burned, fried.  The insulation had burned off, the wires had transmogrified

into a strange, semi-metallic substance, God knows why.  Scary stuff.  All

the instruments were daisy-chained together, then grounded with that one

wire.  I simply fabricated a new, larger ground wire from the last gauge to

the same stud, and ignored the original one.  But that was back in 1989, two,

no, make that THREE wiring harnesses ago...



Mike