Starter motor feed wire routing

[Rustytruck]

My strap I removed was just a 10 gauge wire black with a stripe removed some 40 years ago white or yellow stripe i think. I really only remember it since it was such a painful experience to remove it. the dipstick tube bracket and the wire was routed such that it was a pain to unbolt. one of those 1/8 turn box end wrench things meanwhile getting my hands all sliced up from protruding obstacles while dangling over the fender.

 

[DirtDonk]

Ahh yes, I know the routine all too well unfortunately!

Most (if not all) of the Ford ground wires I've seen on other vehicles had a red stripe. I've got one in my tool box somewhere I'll take a pic of.
Crazy that they used Black w/red stripe wires, or the reverse of that for so many things. Brake lights, backup lamps, ground wires and even main power wires! Seems kind of confuzzling to me.
I'd normally have said they should stick with just plain Black for grounds. Except that they already used plain Black for the main power wire from the battery! But that was before they changed that to Black with red. But only sometimes!
Sheesh.

Paul

 

[Rustytruck]

I never looked at the wiring diagram to see if it was listed someplace. But I am sure they put that wire on on assembly with tranny to the engine as it was in a stupid place for it but easy to drive the screw into the fire wall.

 

[DirtDonk]

The grounds were never really shown clearly on the diagrams. At least not for exact location and mounting. Just whether a circuit was grounded through the component like the light housing or wiper motor or horn relay something like that.

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

Of course the old style line drawings showing locations of stuff "should" have showed any ground locations, but most of the ones we reference for working on the electrical system were the circuit line diagram type just indicating wire colors, origins and destinations. Nothing about locations on the vehicle.

Paul