Triumph TR7 Earths, Grounds etc

[johnnyj]

Hi folks

Getting ready to re-fit my rebuilt engine and I want to make sure all the earths/grounds are correctly in place. My understanding is that there is one main earth strap from the engine (somewhere) to the chassis (also somewhere), and one from the bell housing to the chassis, along with the -VE battery cable to the bell housing. I guess if I have this wrong, you can never have too many.

I can find plenty of earth straps on Ebay, but can anyone tell me the correct lengths?

Also, having done a bit of reading & surfing, I see that there is sometimes mention of additional ground wires(a) from the -VE of the coil to chassis and (b) from somewhere to a top suspension strut bolt. All of these would be good, but are they original?

As for the rest, I have all the earths in place, I think - battery tray, rear lamps, near the boot hinge, A pillar, under the front lamp panel on both sides in the headlamp area.

Here are a couple of pics of the newly built-up engine and a forlorn looking engine bay.

Cheers, John
p.s. How essential is the starter motor heat shield? Can't find mine anywhere...

[Beans]

Bolt the sump cross member to the engine. Makes fitting the engine much easier!
As for the earth points in the engine bay (on 1980/1981 cars);
• One in the engine bay behind each headlamp (bolt of horn bracket);
• Earth wire from coil mounting bolt to strut mounting;
• Thick earth cable from battery (-) to bell housing;
• Thin earth cable from battery (-) to earth point behind battery;
I tend to fit some extra straps between the engine and the body

[Howard722]

Doesn`t the battery go the other way around-just asking

[johnnyj]

Thanks Beans, that all makes sense. Mine is a '77 so it would be interesting to see if the original spec is any different (like the coil to strut earth). The sump cradle is only on the sub frame at the moment as I needed to store it somewhere and not lose it

@Howard The battery is only a temporary fit so that I can test various things. I borrowed it from my neighbour's Land Rover!

Cheers

John

[FI Spyder]

I like to have the heat shield on starter. When I replaced my starter with gear reduction starter the clips wouldn't fit it so I cheated. I bought a Chevy heat shield from auto parts store, took it home, made a cardboard template from it, took shield back to store for refund. As the Chevy starter is on the other side I did a reverse image of it and modified it slightly. Cut out from a sheet of aluminum, I made my own. Basically it has two legs that attach to the mounting points plus a little added extension that curves to give more protection to the connecting wire from road grime. A little ingenuity goes a long way.

[dursleyman]

Doesn`t the battery go the other way around-just asking

Yes, the earth is usually at the bukhead/firewall end.

[sonscar]

Don't be tempted to connect the neg of the coil to the chassis,your car will not run and the coil will melt.