My Do-It-Yourself grounding kit (pics)

[Ken4]

After paying top dollar for a made in japan branded grounding kit, which is essentially some wires, connectors, screws and a bracket.

Do the Ignition Wires and Coil Packs ever need changing?

I decided I wont get ripped off any more and make my own grounding kit for my 2AZ-FE. So I went around hunting for the parts I would need. I managed to find 8awg copper wire used for 12vdc power wire quite easily at S$2.50 per ft. Managed to find an electrical shop selling misc. O-ring connectors at S$0.60 each. And the most difficult part was finding a grounding bracket for the -ve terminal of my battery. Finally found a shop that sold copper earthing bars. So I decided to buy 1 foot it at S$6.50 per ft and fabricate the bracket myself. Here is a pic of the parts:



Here is the finished product:



And here is my pride and joy. My custom made copper earth bracket. Copper is soft and easily hammered to make a 90 deg bracket.

[touringcamry]

Excellent.

Where do all the wires go? It's not very easy to tell by just looking at the photo.
What type of car is that? It doesn't look like a Camry. (Just curious)

[Ken4]

1 to body, 1 to engine block, 1 to throttle body, and 1 to alternator. This is a Toyota Ipsum and a JDM model. This car is an '02 with 28,000km and has a very shaky idle. After grounding, it's much smoother at idle.

http://toyota.jp/ipsum/index.html

[white3ch0c0late]

Great job! Looks real' nice.

I noticed that you sent every 8awg wire to the negative terminal. I thought that a TRUE ground would go full circle. (-ve batt. to chassis, chassis to alternator -ve, alternator +ve to battery +ve through a fuse). Am I wrong in this assumption?

[Hajoca]

The last part is usually adequate and is pretty short in length.

Originally Posted by white3ch0c0late

alternator +ve to battery +ve through a fuse).

Another separate heavy wire from the Alternator + to Battery+ will not do much more, the stock wire is routed (clipped) carefully and the insulation is pretty tough. If you add another wire, and it abrades through you can have some sparking and possibly damage too!

Now thicker + wires to your accessories and other high power components (ie defroster, headlights, AMPS etc) that you regularly use does make sense.


Ken4:
One more heavier ground cable should go to Chassis (body) right in front area alternator side where the headlight ground is put. Another at the Transmission housing, as close to a sensor connector as possible, as the housing is the ground for miscelaneous sensors.

Then you need to polish the shiny copper to keep it looking nice eh?

[Ken4]

Originally Posted by Hajoca

Ken4:
One more heavier ground cable should go to Chassis (body) right in front area alternator side where the headlight ground is put. Another at the Transmission housing, as close to a sensor connector as possible, as the housing is the ground for miscelaneous sensors.

Then you need to polish the shiny copper to keep it looking nice eh?

Thanks for the tips! Fortunately I had the foresight to drill an extra hole in my copper earth bracket!

Grounding really works great. It has smoothened out the shaky idle of my 2AZ-FE.

[WhiteRabbit]

haha, i love your copper bracket!

[Ken4]

Originally Posted by white3ch0c0late

I thought that a TRUE ground would go full circle.

I suppose if you're trying to save on wires, the circle method would be good and look neater.

[HoboJoe]

Very nicely done.

[GrantTPC]

Nice Job.. did you notice any difference after the install?

[Ken4]

Alot smoother at idle.

[johnnyzee]

nice job mine, i love the bracket!

just a question though, other than "smoother idle" what are the advantages to a grounding kit, I'd like to know.

[Ken4]

I also had a problem in my camry and grounding fixed it.

Do the Ignition Wires and Coil Packs ever need changing?

[kenny1773]

What do you guys think about using a replacement negative battery terminal like this

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=263-627

or this

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=263-682

into a distribution block like this

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...=265-800&DID=7

to secure all the grounds instead of building the copper angle bracket like Ken4 did?

Waste of money?
Better?
May hold up better over time? (I do see that nice copper bracket corroding)

Other thoughts?

I am going to do this to my Gen 5 this spring when the weather warms up a bit, but I want to buy everything I need and get it ready before the time comes to do the final install.

I am not so much looking to save money, I just want to do it the best way that will last the longest.

[touringcamry]

Those battery terminals are nice, but not really needed. The distibution block does not have enough connections for all the ground wires.