seattle951

I need all the grounds in 951 cleaned. What is reasonable price for a DC shop to do the work? Anyone near DC want to make some pocket money?

I am in temporary housing and cannot work cars in the parking lot.

mudbuddha

Not sure of a rate but most good shops that familiar with these cars would charge $75-$100 per hours and I could recommend a few good ones. Or you could bring it over my place one weekend and I'll help you with some wrenching. All I have are hand tools so bring your own if it's anything more than that. PM me to coordinate if you are down for it. So are you permanently in the DC area now or just temporary?

Techno Duck

I think a reasonable amount of time is under two hours. The hardest to get at is the bell housing ground. Other than that, all are relatively easy to access.. no lift or crawling under the car required.

seattle951

Thank you for the wrenching offer. I will send you a PM. However, my Craftsman and Snap Tools are in storage. I only have minimal hand tools.

The shops I have been working with in the DC area are insanely expensive. The shop that I have been using quoted $500 to $1,000 for this work. This is out of the question. I would appreciate a recommendation for a more reasonably priced shop. Thanks, Bill

Tom M'Guinn

Why are you interested in cleaning the grounds?

I'd say you're way better off getting a $20 socket set and a piece of sand paper and doing it in your parking structure -- that way you'll know it was actually done! No need to debilitate the car or put it on cinder blocks or the like. If you can check your oil in your parking lot, you can clean the grounds....(pretty much)....

seattle951

The car has a new voltage regulator. The headlights are dim. When they are on the DME/KLR starts clicking away, the mixture goes rich and the engine runs rough. The interior lights are super dim and the power windows slow down with the lights on. The battery always has a full charge. With the lights off, everything is fine. Cleaning the grounds is the next step in solving the problem. Any other thoughts on what to try next other than the grounds?

The apartment parking lot is out of the question. We are not even permitted to vacuum our cars.

jerome951

Most of the decent shops around here charge $100+, but $500+ still sounds steep. Either take up mudbuddha on his offer or you can use my garage and tools. I have everything you'd need.

jmj951

Cleaning the grounds might only be part of the solution - you may need to replace your ground cables or an individual ground wire.

You could first confirm where the problem is by using a multimeter (even a cheap $10-$15 multimeter, just get one with the longest leads you can find). Just put the negative probe on the negative battery terminal, and put the positive probe on the ground connections of various accessories while they are turned on (not at the end of their ground wire where it's connected to the body, but where the ground wire itself is connected to the accessory, such as the negative connection on the lights). Ideally, there should be 0 volts on all of these ground points, but even with well-grounded accessories it will be a few tenths. When you locate the problem area, you should find an accessory that is unable to adequately reach ground and will give you several volts on the negative terminal as a result of the current traveling through the multimeter in lieu of the body ground. Either its ground wire is broken somewhere inside the wire, or the grounding point just needs to be cleaned. If you find that all of the accessories are giving you several volts on their negative ground terminal, even with their grounds cleaned, then the problem is near the battery - either the grounding point in the cowl needs to be cleaned, or the cable itself needs to be replaced.

The main ground coming off the battery is a very critical ground and is very easy to clean. If it was bad, it would affect everything that uses the body as ground. You can clean it anywhere - just pull into a large parking lot if you need to. This ground comes off the negative terminal of the battery, and connects to a very nearby point in the cowl area. Just lift up the plastic piece across the center of the cowl and you'll see it. Very, very simple to access and clean. If, when handling this ground wire, it feels 'crunchy' or gives you have any reason to believe it may be corroded inside, you should definitely add a jumper wire in parallel from the negative terminal of the battery to this nearby ground point to see if that fixes it.

If that doesn't do it, you can also 'band-aid' it by running a few extra thick-gauge wires from the negative battery terminal to the engine block and ideally also to the bellhousing. Obviously not a permanent solution, but they might help you get by until you can properly work on the car.

seattle951

JMJ951, thanks for the information.

Mudbudda, again thanks for the offer. Your offer of assistance is greatly appreciated and I plan to reach out to you after my hectic schedule calms down. I am being tested in Spanish and packing for my move to Bogota plus finishing some customer deliverables (second job).

Question for the group, which of the many grounds would have the most impact on the DME? When my neighbors are not looking, I may try a quick 30 minute cleaning job.

I drive the car once a month at most. Yesterday, after sitting for a month, I started the car. The car started easily, but I noticed the sound of the starter was more low pitched than usual and it appeared to turn over more slowly. The car ran rough. I noticed the volt gauge was above 14 instead of the normal 12. After 15 minutes, the volt gauge dropped back down to 12 and the car ran as smooth as silk. I turned the car off, and restarted it. The starter gave off its normal high pitched sound and the car turned over rapidly and caught in maybe 1 second. To me, it seems pretty clear that anytime the voltage drops, the car develops issues. I am guessing the grounds are the root cause and are starving the DME/KLR.

BTW - I have a small, lightweight Optima dry cell battery in the car. I do not know if this makes any difference.

Techno Duck

The two grounds at the bell housing will have the most impact. There are two seperate points, one grounds the engine harness and the other is for the battery and starter.

For your headlights, clean the two frame rail points as well.