Buggy Engine Wiring Advice

wesinls

wesinls

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Getting ready for my summer project...

Curious of a lot of things of how people's cars are wired, but to start:

Are your grounds all from a central source or to chassis / engine block? (In example radiator fans or fuel pumps)

Did you daisy chain the grounds on relays - or all individually?

Terminal blocks - Phillps screws or studs? There's not many option for stud type and it would seem the phillips style shown below would come loose over time?

See pic below for reference - I really like how clean this is, but leaves me with the above questions...

image.png

 
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Grounds locally to the chassis

Relay grounds all individual tied to a block with a neg lead on the battery

Phillips heads, no issues (knock on wood)

 
wesinls said:
Getting ready for my summer project...

Curious of a lot of things of how people's cars are wired, but to start:

Are your grounds all from a central source or to chassis / engine block? (In example radiator fans or fuel pumps)

Did you daisy chain the grounds on relays - or all individually?

Terminal blocks - Phillps screws or studs? There's not many option for stud type and it would seem the phillips style shown below would come loose over time?

See pic below for reference - I really like how clean this is, but leaves me with the above questions...

View attachment 65213
Click to expand...
Whatever you do don't use non-sealed plugs for the relays like that photo. Sand can get into the connectors.

 
When wiring my buggy I came across an article that was promoting the "star point" method of grounding where as much as possible all grounds go to one central location on the frame.  I can't find the info I used right now, but that's how I did my buggy.

 
depends on the component if i run a dedicated ground. most things though are just a chassis ground.

 
Individual grounds to a single connection point is better than multiple chassis points. Much easier to troubleshoot electrical issues as well. Ground straps from your cylinder head or engine block  to your transaxle and transaxle to frame is also a really good idea.

 
Depends what you are grounding, adding grounds to a relay dont make a huge difference, all you are is add mag switch so it just needs to make a short, you can daisy those, it will be cleaner,  Grounding central components, like the ECM, Switch-Pros, i like a ground cable from the batter to a ground post mounted in the front near dash and in the rear near the ECM, or i will run the ECM to the battery (holley) 

Adding Grounds to a Controller that is for the motor, i run to a ground on the ECM,  So any ground for anything for the ECM should be grounded of a triggered ground inside the ECM,  that way it will not back-feed and blow out the modular components,  

I also run a ground from the ground post to the motor, most of the sensors on the motor need a ground so having a clean ground will help, 

 
I'm not a fan of relays...I like simple.  Simple is easier to fix, when you are practicing BJs w/a flashlight (holding it in your mouth), when you are tired, at 10p, in the dunes, and your hand is contorted in to a crevice...especially if alcohol is involved and your "friends" are absolutely no help at all, and you want to do is go to sleep.

How about as many toggle switches as you can.  They make them that will easily handle 20 amps.  Other than your light bar, not much that uses more than 20amps....well cooling fans do, but they pretty much require a relay (as a sensor normally isn't suitable to ground that much "juice").

https://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchResultsPageCmd?q=toggle+switch&pageSize=30&Tab=SKU&storeId=10001&catalogId=&langId=-1&pageNumber=1

Is my thinking faulty?

They make a new wire coupling.  It is heat shrink and water-tight (and possibly sand-tight).  



 
On my car i always weld a stainless 1/4" to 3/8" bolt to the chassis in stratigic places. Use a stainless Nylock nut to get a good ground.

Tape them up when you do powdercoat. No problems rusting and looking bad. 

 
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