Cleaning up grounding attachment points
 

I just read a recent thread about cleaning up the attachment points for ground cables and braids. I'm sure it has benefits but what are they? Better stronger spark? My truck is 18 years old and I'm sure nothing like this has ever been done. I do know that I can hear every time the delay wipers activate I can hear a "tick" on the radio. Plugging just about anything into the 12v port on the dash sends the radio into "static mode". Any thoughts?

Bad grounds are a primary cause of miscellaneous electrical problems. A main power ground, for example, acts exactly like a battery that's dying from old age.

Cleaning ground connections cannot hurt, and may help. And it only costs a little of your time.

The ground is half of a circuit, with the positive supply side being the other half. A faulty ground has high resistance and can fail to provide adequate electricity when demand for power is high. It should have no effect on interference in your radio. You likely need a ferrite filter on the supply leads of the radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbv9PUC0xPk

Consider cleaning ground connections as a preventative maintenance. In modern vehicles the number of issues that can occur due to bad grounds is infinite. Find a good source of ground locations specific to your car.

Clean all contact points to bare metal, including the chassis of the vehicle. You can not be to meticulous. Coat every surface with grease or your preferred water repellent. Even clean the washers.

To diagnose bad grounds,start at the negative battery terminal. Set your volt meter to 12 volts. With the suspect component operating under load, see if there is any voltage between the various connections in the ground circuit. I suspect virtually any voltage reading above 1/10th volt. Obviously a reading of 12volts (higher due to charging system operation) indicates a totally failed ground.

The most simple bad ground is a corroded light bulb socket or a loose-corroded battery terminal.

regards
mech

While you have that meter in use; check to see if you measure any voltage between the actual battery post sand the battery cable connectors. You should measure zero volts here. I have found this connection to have a hard black surface on the post and the inside of the cable connector. The black surface was so hard I had to use a rat tail file to clean the surfaces. A wire brush was not strong enough.