Wiring harness grounding question

[Nowik35]

So I went with the generic painless harness, I would like to consider my self electrically inclined so I think I can manage the necessary customization to make this harness work for my bronco. One thing I wanted to ask this community is does everyone actually ground out all their components on the body and frame. I'm just starting to lay everything out but it looks like the headlights/ voltage regular / horn/ fan motor/fuel tank sender. Probably other things I'm forgetting but they all get grounded out locally and I don't actually have a ground wire running to them in my harness. Now my bronco being freshly painted it breaks my heart drilling into my bronco to establish ground. Never mind exposed metal being a focus point for future rust problems. Do people here do drill into the body no problem or some add ground wire to these components and avoid drilling??

 

[ba123]

I don’t and I don’t believe in trusting the body ground unless it’s for something that has to be that way, like tail lights.

Headlights have a ground wire.

I run negative battery to starter bolt, then same starter bolt to:
1) ground down spot on firewall, I used a bolt through to create a stud so internal electronics are also direct to battery ground.
2) to each head (I needed that specifically because of my Coil Near Plug setup, but most won’t)
3) ground at front of intake, that also went to ac compressor and any other electronics on engine front that needed ground
4) on inside using stud, connected to a buss bar for all other grounds inside.

I also ran a ground wire to the back, that I again attached inline to the body near my amp steps, and then continued back to my fuel pump, fuel level sender and anything else I might need back there to be grounded other than tail lights.

You prob don’t need to be that detailed, but I’ve seen to many people not ground stuff properly so I make sure to do it right.

I also don’t see any reason to tie in the frame, although some do. Some say you need it for the fuel level sender, but not an aftermarket one, so I don’t.

 

[tpatton75]

I have a fiberglass tub and it wasn’t that bad to run grounds ,a stud near battery and one at emergency brake for dash and a line to rear lights. And main ground to engine. That gives you studs for future add ons .

 

[abn373]

I also have a fiberglass tub, but this works for you too. This is an example of a bus bar available. I put one in my engine bay and ran the ground to the engine block ground. Its cleans up all the random places you ground to and no drilling after you install it. I also have one under my dash. super easy to add/remove grounds with a screwdriver. I didn't use the provided ring terminals, of course, but the bus bar itself works great and it's almost like I am grounded everything to the engine block.

 

[Madgyver]

So you're really worried about rust? It will happen if you plan to drive it.

To answer your question, you could run a separate ground wire to all your circuits. That's a lot of wire.

 

[DirtDonk]

Just drill where necessary.
And all, or most of the holes you need should already be there, unless you had the body shop close them all up.
In a perfect world, you would have a planned ahead and kept specific grounding areas clear and clean. But I’m not sure how many people actually do that.
You might have to clean some paint out of the threads to make sure you have a good contact between the bolt and the body, but even if you have to scrape an area below the terminal clean of any new paint to get good contact, simply put a spritz of spray paint over the top of it when you’re done.
That’s what I do whenever I clean metal underneath a contact point. Bolt all the wires down I’m going to, then I’ll paint on top of it to keep it from rusting.

 

[Steve83]

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