Folks,

I'm wondering about that ground point on the driver's side head... the one
where the big ground exits to the chassis, but also that hard-to-find ground
comes out of the harness upstream of the Hall Sender connector and dives
under the intake plenum, behind and under the A/C mount, to end at a bolt
attached to the head.

Mine is hanging on by a thread. The wire at the connector seems to have been
flexed a bit and does not inspire confidence. Problem is reaching that bolt
is nigh impossible.

My question is, if i managed to get the connector free, can i run it to a
more accessible ground on the engine or firewall? Is there some weird VW
magic about grounding to the heads? And, am i being dense when ask what is
the point of grounding a wire to a point on the head? Would it not be better
to ground it to a point on the block?

I ask this now because i'm moving from connector to connector, cleaning and
reseating. I recently removed the transmission ground strap and cleaned
everything until it shined. I swear the idle is smoother, there is virtually
no more hesitation coming out of second gear and MPG has moved from an
average of 17.4 up to about 19.

Bentley should add an entire section devoted to "Ground Maintenance."

As always, thanks.

-jspeer
'89 Westy GL, "Mystery Machine"