Instead of grounding to the head you could connect to a more
convenient location like the top bolt (drivers side) that attaches the
engine to the transmission.  That's what I did.

I would cut the connection to the grounding bolt on the head and
attach a new (bigger) eyelet for the tranny-engine bolt connection.

-------------------------
Laurence Smith
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
90 Westy (fanumbos)
87 GL
-------------------------

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List
> [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
> Of Jeremy Speer
> Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 7:38 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: A question about grounds...
>
>
> 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"
>