The Ford Barn

KarlJS · 05-09-2020, 04:41 PM

Bought an after market gas sending unit, frame is rusty so i was going to run a ground wire up to the battery. Wondering what gage wire that should be. Also have a single 12 volt fog light on the front and need to know what gage wire that should be. Thanks for the help.

corvette8n · 05-09-2020, 05:58 PM

You shouldn't have to run a seperate ground, pick a spot on the frame and make it bright. Grounds should be clean,tight,bright. Be sure you have a good ground from battery to motor and frame. A 12ga. Wire should be ok for the fog light.
Even modern cars can suffer from bad grounds, on my daughters car when she stepped on the brakes the car died, turns out the ground wire from the body to motor was broken.

rotorwrench · 05-10-2020, 10:10 AM

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I wouldn't go that far with a ground wire. Your frame should be sufficiently grounded even if it crusty. Just clean the rust off and put some dielectric grease on the terminal before tightening it up. 16 gauge is fine for 6 or 12-volt. If you ran grounds for everything, you would end up with twice as many wires as you really need plus there is resistance in wire too. The longer the wire, the higher the resistance.

05-09-2020, 04:41 PM	#1
KarlJS Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Riverside, CAlifornia Posts: 119	Wire gage Bought an after market gas sending unit, frame is rusty so i was going to run a ground wire up to the battery. Wondering what gage wire that should be. Also have a single 12 volt fog light on the front and need to know what gage wire that should be. Thanks for the help.

05-09-2020, 05:58 PM	#2
corvette8n Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: 36 miles north of Albany NY Posts: 2,946	Re: Wire gage You shouldn't have to run a seperate ground, pick a spot on the frame and make it bright. Grounds should be clean,tight,bright. Be sure you have a good ground from battery to motor and frame. A 12ga. Wire should be ok for the fog light. Even modern cars can suffer from bad grounds, on my daughters car when she stepped on the brakes the car died, turns out the ground wire from the body to motor was broken.

05-10-2020, 10:10 AM	#3
rotorwrench Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: San Antonio, Texas Posts: 16,425	Re: Wire gage Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements) I wouldn't go that far with a ground wire. Your frame should be sufficiently grounded even if it crusty. Just clean the rust off and put some dielectric grease on the terminal before tightening it up. 16 gauge is fine for 6 or 12-volt. If you ran grounds for everything, you would end up with twice as many wires as you really need plus there is resistance in wire too. The longer the wire, the higher the resistance.