Help! need advice from someone that knows wiring

[Guest Anonymous]

i'm putting everything back together after a ton of work. i've hit a problem that i need some smart advice on.

i've got one wire that has me stumped. i think it's a ground (brown with a loop connector at the end for a small screw to fit through).

i suspect that it goes to the back of the alternator.

does the wiring on the alternator have a ground that screws on it in the back?

for the alternator i've got the big plug with three wires going into it and the big red wire.

should there also be a brown ground on the back of the alternator? if yes then i've figured out where my mystery wire goes.

one of the reasons i'm not sure is that it doesn't seem to reach the back of alternator but that could be beacuse of all the rewrapping i did on the the wiring harness - i may have rolled much of it in with another wire and that shortened up it's reach.

the harness that it rolled with is supporting the wiring on the drivers side (warm-up regulator, etc.) so it's got to fit somewhere around that area.

by the way, is there anything special about the wiring for a tii that would impact on converting to a 320i alternator. got one from a junk yard. trent tiltons article spells out how to do the wiring conversion but he specifies the how to is for a "non-tii." what's the difference/problem?

thanks for any help.

tim

72tii.

[Guest Anonymous]

Yes, the alternator body should be grounded to the engine block. Attach the brown wire to the longer of the three exterior screws that hold the body of the alt together - it should have a nut or two on the end of it.

[Guest Anonymous]

i've been studying the wiring diagram and i noticed that the brown (ground) is one of the three wires on the big plug. that takes care of ground. i do remember adding another ground from the alternator to the block a few years ago and I have that wire to put on.

however that still leaves me with a gound wire without a home. i looked again at that ground that had me originally stumped. it is two ground wires feeding into a loop connector. i noticed in McCarthy's book he says there should be a ground ("Earthing point") on the "engine side of the front bulkhead." I'm wondering if that dual gound wire is it? If so then I need to figure out where I took it off of. Any suggestions on where I should be screwing that ground wire into the "engine side of the front bulkhead?" I'll keep looking for the right spot. It sure has me stumped.

thanks for any further advice on your part.

tim

[Guest Anonymous]

as long as you get a good mechanical connection. Everything else being even, you want as few grounds as possible (usually one in the engine compartment, one behind the dash and one in the trunk) with as many ground leads connected to each point.

What you don't want is a bunch of indiviual grounds scattered around the car.

Cheers!

John N