[Shotimes] grounds?

[Bruce Malachuk]

Well I've had a problem with my fuel sender since I bought my 94 Opal Frost,
seems that the gas gauge only likes to read when it is raining out. I jsut
spliced in a new connector to the fuel pump and gauge sender, and key on
still same problem Wait it gets better. If I unhook the ground from the pump
and leave hang against the metal of the guage sender/fuel pump assembly low
an behold the gauge works without a problem. So I figure out that I have a
bad ground, Orange wire with yellow stripe. EVTM says go to G103 which is
one th front fender by the airbox. So I test across that to the battery
negative. I get a beeping from my multimeter. I test that ground location to
other grounds in the engine bay, beep beep beep all the time. Soooo then I
go back to the gauge sender, test the O/Y connector in the harness to the
rear brakeline no beep. Try other places, no beep. Realize that there muct
be a short somewhere in the harness running from that ground to the rear of
the car. The fuel pump sees the proper volts all the time, and runs right,
and when it rains the sender was accurate. :-) So I'm left with a quandry.
How do I fix this even if the fix is a "cob job" cause I don't want to go
thru the hassle of dropping the tank again and I refuse to cut a hole in my
floor.
 
Seeing how AFAIK the car always has a ground going on there shouldn't be any
reason I can't just take a self tapping sheet metal screw and attach a
"second ground lead" to the wire going into the wire supplying the ground
for the fuel sender. I'm thinging under the rear seat would be a good place
for that :-) I know there are resistance questions involved with the sender,
but a ground is a ground is a ground right? I would think that the fuel tank
it self would be grounded to the body fia the straps and bolts holding it up
correct? Which may be why when driving in the rain (how dare I?) the gauge
starts to work properly as there is enough of a better ground tank to body.
 
So any major reasons why I shouldn' just ass in a second ground and call it
G103A in my mind :-) I'm not up for trying to rewire the harness containing
the current O/Y wire from the front of the car back.
 
Bruce J Malachuk

*	94 Opal Frost MTX 

*	93 Emerald Green MTX 

*	93 Black ATX - parts 

*	95 Silver Frost ATX SE - SLO