Spent 6 hours chasing a dead short in my Jeep that turned out to be a corroded ground wire at the frame

I traced every single wire under the hood with a multimeter for almost 6 hours before I finally saw the frame ground cable was green and crusty under the insulation. Has anyone else had a simple ground wire hide a problem like that forever?

3 comments

3 Comments

alice2691mo ago

Didn't this exact thing happen to my buddy Dave with his old Ford truck? He was pulling his hair out for two days, swapped the alternator, battery, everything, then noticed a chunk of the ground strap was basically dirt.

harper6931mo ago

lol yeah that "basically dirt" part hits close to home. I spent a whole weekend chasing a ghost in my Jeep once, turns out the ground wire was basically just green dust with a little copper left inside. Felt like a real genius when I finally spotted it.

davis.adam1mo ago

Oh man @harper693, the worst part is that green dust blend - it looks totally fine until you wiggle it and poof, dead connection. I’d bet half of those old body ground straps are just cosmetic at this point, carrying zero current.