Re: [Amc-list] Help! I need suggestions on my 86 Eagle

[Glen Hoag <hoag@xxxxxx>]

Jamie,
The battery negative connects to the engine block.  The engine is 
insulated from the chassis by the rubber engine mounts, so there is 
supposed to be a ground strap somewhere between the 
engine/transmission assembly and the unibody, since all the body 
electrical circuits are grounded through it.

On my Pacers, there is a ground wire at the transmission mount that 
provides this function.  One end connects to a transmission mount 
bolt on the transmission side, while the other end connects to one of 
the transmission crossmember bolts on the chassis.  I presume that 
other AMCs use a similar method.  It should be a fairly heavy gauge 
because all the lights and accessories ground to the battery via this 
wire.  I forgot to replace this on one of the Pacers after replacing 
a transmission mount and had all sorts of odd electrical problems 
until I figured out what I had done.  The headlights and instrument 
panel lights would dim when the wipers were operating, for instance.

--Glen


At 11:13 PM 9/8/2007, you wrote:
>Jim, I am already a member there, I just never think to post over there.
>
>I sure wish I had seen your message before I started working on this 
>thing. It was to the point that just moving the steering wheel or 
>even getting in/out of the car killed all the lights and 
>accessories. So after work today I started tearing into it.
>  First I pulled the steering wheel and opened up the column. Didn't 
> appear to be anything wrong in there but while I had it apart I did 
> tighten up the tilt joint (it was getting really sloppy). Also 
> found why my horn doesn't work. The guy that replaced the ignition 
> piece that likes to break back when my boss still owned it broke a 
> piece and and therefore left some pieces out (I am assuming he 
> threw them away to hide them). When my boss tested it and found the 
> horn didn't work the guy said "oh, a wire must have broke or come 
> loose inside". So, on a related note.....Does anyone have a diagram 
> of the internals of the column (or at least the horn setup) so I 
> can figure out what I need to fix it?
>
>I then tore the dash apart (had a h#ll of a time getting the gauge 
>cluster out and then later getting it back in). Started checking 
>wires and grounds and testing stuff and everything. While I had the 
>dash torn apart I decided to play around with the a/c and did some 
>testing on the switch. There is power at the switch but I am getting 
>nothing at the clutch. I unplugged the clutch and touched the wire 
>to the (+) side of the battery and it kicked right on.
>Anyway, after finding nothing wrong under the dash I started testing 
>the fuse block and was getting no juice to a "bat" terminal. I moved 
>and everything started working so I tested again and had juice. I 
>started testing wires under the hood and found that if I tested from 
>the (-) on the battery to any "hot" wire I had juice. Same with 
>going from the engine block. However, if I went from a body screw or 
>bolt to any hot wire (including (+) on the battery) I had nothing. 
>So, I grabbed a chunk of wire and touch it to a body screw and then 
>touched it to the (-) on the battery and "let there be light" 
>everything worked. So, I stripped the ends of the wire and hooked 
>one end under the body screw and the other end to the (-) on the 
>battery and then jumped in and started pushing the brake pedal and 
>moving it and moving the steering wheel and slamming my hand on the 
>dash and everything I could and it continued to work. In fact it 
>didn't even flicker. So, I spent from 1 pm to 6:30 pm te
>  aring the column and dash apart and testing and checking before I 
> finally found that it was something so stupidly simple that I could 
> have found it in 5 minutes instead of 5 hours if I had seen Jims reply first.
>
>So, now that I have it working, where would I normally find this 
>ground that has failed so I can fix it correctly?
>
>Thanks everyone for your replies.

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