Grounding on the radiator.I am doing an electric fan conversion on my truck. I am trying to keep the wiring simple, and I intend to ground the fans and the controller on the radiator. Is this something that will cause issues?
>>28890431How is that possible and what is your reason for doing that? The rad is isolated by rubber mounts and is not grounded to the frame or the body. You would need to ground the rad somehow. I'm not seeing how that would simplify the wiring. Those fans will pull a lot of current and really should be grounded directly to the frame.
>>28890431You can ground the fans anywhere.Chassis ground, battery, or engine.
>>28890434Basically using the radiator as a bus bar. The radiator is connected to the chassis ground through normal mounting.
>>28890439grounding at the battery terminal would be the best but that's usually not possible so you'd choose the next shortest path which would be the engine block or radiator support depending on where the ground wire is connected.
>>28890444The battery is less than 6 inches from the end of the radiator. I'm basically doing cable management, keeping the wires from dancing around and getting caught on the belt drive.
>>28890448the battery may be right next to the radiator, but the path to its negative terminal from the fans would be much longer. also using the radiator as a ground can cause electrolysis which can eventually cause leaks.
>>28890453In an aluminum rad?
>>28890448Are you an engineer? You're overthinking this. Post a pic of your engine bay and I'll show you multiple routes for a ground wire to go without getting destroyed. Ever hear of a cable tie?
>>28890455aluminium is pretty low in the galvanic series.honestly i might be overthinking it. ground it to the radiator and if you notice leaks later mayhaps move the ground to the rad core support after you repair/replace it.
I wouldn't do that simply because the radiator usually sits on rubber mounts at least along the bottom. Eve if it is bolted to the front rad support without rubber mounts, there is still going to be layers of paint in between the metal. And if the bolts aren't painted/coated, it might work for a while until the bolts rust. If you must ground the fans to the rad, then make a separate wire with a ring terminal at each end. Sand some paint off the rad around a bolt hole, do the same thing on the body of the vehicle. Bolt the wire to the rad and the body of the vehicle. Now the rad is properly grounded and electrically common with the body of the vehicle.
>>28890475I mean, if there is a chance to cause a leak, I won't ground directly to the rad. I'll run the ground along with the power/switch lines.
