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I have an '84 Dodge D100 short-bed with a 318. For some time, it had intermittent electrical problems: the temperature and oil pressure gauges would read too high (the original ammeter never worked; the junkyard gauge I replaced it with worked for about a day), the headlights would flicker, the coil would die (even after buying one with a lifetime warranty), etc. I noticed that the problems temporarily cleared after I disconnected the battery ground terminal, then reconnected it. In addition to the main ground cable going to the engine block, it has a smaller ground wire going to the frame near the radiator. When I bought a new ground wire, the smaller wire didn't quite reach the frame, so I used part of the old wire and spliced male/female connectors on them. The connectors were apparently not an exact fit, as they would often separate, so I reconnected them whenever I checked the battery. About 2 weeks ago, I finally got tired of it, and used one butt splice to connect the wires. I've not had an electric malfunction since.
Perhaps interested electric experts can verify or dispute that what I did actually cured the problems, and discuss why this smaller ground wire is important.
Perhaps interested electric experts can verify or dispute that what I did actually cured the problems, and discuss why this smaller ground wire is important.